This essay examines the French law of 15 July 1889 (also known as the Loi Freycinet) which reorganised the military conscription system and introduced the principle of double punishment for all conscripts who had been convicted of an offence prior to their conscription. The article also revisits the previous law of 1885 on the transportation of recidivists, and argues that these two measures were responsible for the exclusion of “incorrigible/incurable” people during the French Third Republic.