Condemned

Qualifications

All the members of the Condemned are convicted criminals, given the option when they receive their court sentence. They may choose to face their given punishment [be it heavy fines, time in jail, or even execution, depending on the severity of their crimes] or to serve the community they wounded.

Authority

The captain of the Condemned forces is not a criminal. In fact, they are volunteer paladins with decorated and long histories of serving the city in question. These are the only ones who can be trusted to oversee such a volatile group, without their own biases interfering with their duty, and many of them hope to be able to aid the convicted in their road to redemption.

Public Perception

Members of the Condemned are not seen in a good light by citizens, and they are treated as the criminals they are regardless of whether they are working to redeem their past misdeeds or just to avoid jail time. Even those who earn their release are often forced to move to another city in order to properly start over without being dragged down by the time among the Condemned. The majority of free citizens see these people as only trying to avoid the death penalty, even without knowing what their crime actually was.

Duties

Condemned are given the worst jobs that must be done around the city. Any task that free citizens need aid with, they can ask a Condemned to aid them. The cost is a donation to the captain that goes into keeping the condemned fed and clothed. When not requested by another citizen, the condemned are often given patrol duty, aiding in the kitchens, or cleaning the city's streets, latrines, and animal stalls.

“Benefits”

The primary allure of being in the Condemned is the potential of earning their freedom faster than their given sentence would have allowed.
  The Condemned are entitled to a meal and bed in their dedicated barracks, as well as one personal chest with a lock at the foot of the bed. Their personal belongings must be able to fit in the chest to be safe from their fellows, as those around them were likewise criminals like themselves. When called to guard duty, or active battle, they are provided basic equipment, though nothing so valuable that it would be a shame to lose should they fall.

Dangers & Hazards

Condemned are given a collar of divine magic around their necks to ensure they cannot attempt to escape or cause further harm to the civilians. Should the bounds of their leash be pulled, the collar will tighten until the offender is incapacitated, to be retrieved by their captain. The collar will also react if the criminal attacks their captain, who at all times has a sense of their location through the divine connection.
  The Condemned are most commonly used as a supplement force to the city's guards, but they are also always the ones put on the front line of any army assault, or sent to locations that are thought to be deadly. This puts them in the most danger of being killed in the line of duty, their lives seen as expendable shields for the lives of trained soldiers or scouts. The only benefit to this arrangement for the Condemned is that each mission or time on the field will mark off years from their sentence.