In addition to social coercion, the force of law was also applied to force men to fight in World War I. A U.S. Census Bureau report on prisoners in 1917 and 1922 observed:

In comparing the 1922 ratios {of prisoners per 100,000 residents} for county and city prisoners with those for 1917, consideration should be given to the fact that in the earlier year an unknown but possibly large number of draft evaders were in confinement, especially in county jails. Information as to character of offense was not called for by the inquiry, but in a few cases it was volunteered and in others it was brought out by correspondence with sheriffs who had reported much larger numbers of prisoners for 1917 than for 1922. For example: A sheriff in Minnesota wrote that the 66 prisoners in the county jail on July 1, 1917, included 64 draft evaders. A Michigan sheriff, reporting 40 prisoners for 1917 and 14 for 1922, added: “It appears that in June 1917 the number of prisoners confined in jail was due possibly to the draft and the violation of liquor laws.” A sheriff in Washington reported 34 prisoners in 1917 and 19 in 1922 and noted that 23 of the 1917 total were “slackers.”^

U.S. county and city jails held about 19,000 more prisoners relative to the prisoner growth trend from 1917 to 1922 in federal and state prisoners. The number of incarcerated draft evaders was probably of that magnitude. Military service typically functions as an alternative to punishment for men. Evidently World War I did not generate enthusiasm among non-elite American men.