new thread
Don't get incarcerated in Virginia if you want to keep your hair:
Inmates who refuse haircuts sent to high security
By DENA POTTER
The Associated Press
Thursday, March 3, 2011; 2:38 PM
RICHMOND, Va. -- Several Rastafarians and other inmates have been moved to a high-security prison as officials try to persuade them to cut their hair, which many refuse to do because it goes against their religious beliefs.
Many inmates had spent more than a decade in isolation for refusing to cut their hair and then were all first moved to the same prison in November. Their refusal violates the state's grooming policy for prisoners. Some of those recently moved are still working through a program meant to persuade them to cut their hair. Nine chose to go back into segregation, corrections department spokesman Larry Traylor said Thursday.
Corrections officials said the program would give the inmates more privileges and a chance to socialize. In letters to the AP, several inmates criticized it as little more than segregation by another name.
"That's all they have done with this arrangement, removed the word 'segregation' while in actuality we remain segregated and subjected to literally the same policy that seeks to strip us of our faith, our dignity and our will to resist tyrants acting as public servants," said Roberto Chavez, one of the inmates who chose to return to segregation rather than comply with the program.
Traylor said the move last week to Wallens Ridge State Prison, one of the state's highest security prisons in far southwest Virginia, was simply an issue of space. However, inmates who decide to cut their hair and are released back into the general population will face tighter security and fewer privileges there than they would have at their previous home, Keen Mountain Correctional Center. More than 30 inmates had moved to Keen Mountain in November.
He said the program to get inmates to cut their hair has been a success, adding that six inmates agreed to cut their hair and returned to the general population.
The program gives graduated privileges such as time outside cells, money to spend in the commissary and freedom during recreation time if the inmates take classes on anger management and behavioral modification.
Inmates who finish the program "graduate" to the general population, where there are more privileges.
Several inmates refused the program, which required them to double-bunk. They said they had developed odd behaviors to cope with years in isolation and did not want to spend 22 hours a day in such tight quarters.
Most of those who had been in segregation for more than a decade were Rastafarians, who believe that it is against God's will to cut their hair.
Chavez said the program was not educational but more akin to "psychological warfare."
"The whole purpose of us being sent here is to subject us to intensive psychology mumbo jumbo," Chavez said.
A group of Rastafarian and Muslim inmates unsuccessfully challenged the policy in federal court in 2003.
Virginia is among only about a dozen states that limit the length of inmates' hair and beards, according to the American Correctional Chaplains Association. A handful of those allow accommodations for those whose religious beliefs prohibit cutting their hair. There is no hair policy for federal prisoners.
The department says the grooming policy is needed to prevent inmates from hiding weapons and drugs in their long hair or beards, and also to keep them from quickly changing their appearance if they escape.
About 300 inmates identify as Rastafarians, but only about a dozen are out of compliance with the policy, department officials said. Inmates' heads are shaved when they enter prison.
"We're not doing it just because we can. It's been done because it raises some security issues and concerns," said Harold Clarke, who took over as director of the department in November.
Allen McRae, who changed his name to Ras-Solomon Tafari in prison, also chose to return to isolation. He said the program barred inmates from any educational or religious programming, holding a job, receiving personal property like television and some hygiene items, and face-to-face visits with loved ones.
That only comes if they cut their hair.
"The program is designed in such a way that we can never graduate the program unless we surrender our religious beliefs," he said.
Interesting article, Al. Although I certainly empathize with those prisoners who are faced with such an unfair situation, as well as realize that occasionally innocent people are sent off to prison, the fact remains that the majority of people in state prisons in the US probably have done something very wrong in order to get them there.
A relative of mine had to spend 6 years in prison up in Oregon. I visited him twice during his incarceration, as well as other relatives visited, too (some more often, while others only once, or even not at all).... It was a tough spot to be in -- I wanted to show love & support; but what he had done that got him locked away for 6 years was definitely something extremely wrong.
In the state of Oregon, I couldn't help but notice the fact that I saw a lot of longhairs who were inside the prison that I visited. In fact, many prisoners that I saw there not only had quite long hair, but were also in many cases quite buff and good-looking as well (because they had so much free time on their hands, and no responsibilities to worry about)! For a brief moment, I was even a little jealous of the fact that they had way more free time to pursue getting fit than i had in the "outside" world...
But, then I reminded myself of something important: "They can't go anywhere, Ken -- no dances to dress up for, no hikes allowed in the great outdoors, no nice gardens to enjoy in the sun, no fancy meals to cook for guests coming over for dinner..."
A lot of simple, everyday privileges are taken away from those who get incarcerated, small things that we in the outside world probably often just take for granted (including, as this article informs us, of forced haircuts in some states and/or countries).
All the more reason for me to want to stay far away from getting into the kind of trouble that could land me in any prison!
- Ken in San Francisco
While I do think it's wrong that they should be forced to get haircuts even as prisoners, it would have been so much better for them to not have placed themselves in this position in the first place.
I have also noticed some prisoners with long hair. I wonder how the prison system works and why some are forced to cut and others are not.
While the precise reasons will, of course, vary from one correctional system to the next, one potential reason is security. In Maricopa County (Arizona) it was found that inmates were using long hair as a means to smuggle contraband items. So the county sheriff decreed buzzcuts to prevent the problem. An exception was made for Native American prisoners due to religious reasons, but with the understanding that the first time an inmate claiming that exemption was caught smuggling anything in his hair, it was coming off.
It's a shame that these folks have to be restricted but, to paraphrase Ken's point, "if you can't do the time, don't do the crime".
Frodo
That goes for a handful of other states/counties with similar hair policies. If you don't want to do the time, along with all the arbitrary rules, complete lack of privacy, etc: don't do the crime!
Sorry... but that is such BS. If anybody has seen Lockup on MSNBC, you can see plenty of longhair guys in prison; and they haven't had any security issues. During strip searches, the inmates are told to run their spread fingers through their hair, to show to correctional staff that they are _not_ hiding contraband in their hair. In these facilities, you would only get shorn if you repeatedly violated the rules by using your hair to hide and/or transport contraband.
In some prisons in the South, that require short hair; Native Americans have been able to get a reprieve due to religious beliefs. I empathize with the situation these inmates are in, but it could have simply been avoided if they had not made the choices that landed them behind bars to begin with.