On Sat, 25 Jul 2020 12:52:18 -0400, xxxxxx@gmail.com wrote to Freelance
Traveller:

>Administrative punishment (vs. a legal proceeding) if I understand
>correctly. It's not something you want to face. I believe it exists so that
>crews can deal with bad choices without having to leave too much of a
>permanent mark in somebody's personnel jacket.

"It's not something you want to face." That depends on circumstance; if
it's a borderline case where one could justify either a severe masting or a
full court-martial, if you're offered the choice - usually "If you take a
masting, I'm going to sentence you to X, vs facing a full court, which will
likely drum you out" - you take the masting. Unless you're _really_
confident that you can get the court-martial board on your side during the
trial. I've been in this position in the NYPD equivalent (see below); I had
a choice of taking a Schedule B penalty of losing five days of leave time
(the maximum the Commanding Officer is allowed to impose as a penalty), or
taking "charges and specifications" and "going to the trial room"
(equivalent to court-martial). I took the Schedule B; it took many years
before I got a promotion that on the basis of pure technical merit I had
deserved almost immediately after the initial six months after my
"discussion". I took the Schedule B _knowing_ that it could end my career
progression, because I knew that I was _not_ going to be able to convince
the Department Advocate's jury that I was more valuable "alive" than
"dead".

In the NYPD, we call them "Command Discipline" ('CD'), and there are two
classes: A 'Schedule A' CD will "fall off" your record after six months, so
if you keep your nose clean for that long, it'd be like it never happened;
a 'Schedule B' is permanent. An A can kill a promotion or 'plum' assignment
for _this_ cycle, but will probably fall off by the next cycle; a B can
kill your chances for the plum assignment permanently, and while it cannot
(because of New York State civil service law) bar you from standing for
promotion, it _can_ be used as a deciding factor (adverse) between you and
a candidate who stands at the same score on the qualifying examination.

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--
Jeff Zeitlin, Editor
Freelance Traveller
    The Electronic Fan-Supported Traveller® Resource
xxxxxx@freelancetraveller.com
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