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This video is about an upcoming court case regarding forced haircutting on American Indian prisoners. In the video, a map appears which shows the practice occurs in a few states, mainly in the South.
Upcoming Supreme Court Case - prisoner haircutting
Light gray states discriminate against longhaired Indian prisoners. Dark gray states do not.
Hi Bill,
And I would have to live in the biggest light gray state! Which also happens to be more red than I prefer!
Ted
One minor qualifier to the "dark grey states do not". In Maricopa County, Arizona, Sheriff Arpaio originally ordered all prisoners to be given short haircuts due to problems with prisoners hiding contraband in their hair. American Indian prisoners protested on religious/cultural grounds. The sheriff modified the order so that Indian prisoners would be allowed to keep long hair unless they were caught hiding contraband in it. If an individual goofs up, he gets clipped. Seems a reasonable compromise between individual needs and the question of security.
That's a totally understandable compromise in my view. Thanks, Frodo, for sharing that info.
I also try to remind myself of the fact that usually these prisoners have done something quite violent and horrific to someone in order to get themselves into prison in the first place. While of course I have tremendous empathy for any guy with long hair, -- and NOT seeing that beautiful head of hair cut short -- if the prisoner took an innocent person's life, that life is much harder to "replace" than any head of long hair.
- Ken
On the other hand, women and shorthaired men who commit the same crime are not deprived of a part of their body.
Also, when a longhair whose hair was taken has served his term, they cannot at the prison gate hand him back his hair. His punishment will run for years after he has finished serving his time.
None of the criminal codes specify a stronger penalty for longhairs. It is unfair to punish some people who have committed an offense more harshly than others who have committed the same offense are punished.
Bill
Very valid point, Bill.
When I went up to visit my step-brother in far Eastern Oregon at the state prison he was sentenced to for 6 years (in June of '99), that prison was filled with very buff young men, many of them longhaired -- and I do mean GOOD-LOOKING hunky longhairs!!!! (My eyes just about popped out of my head!)
Fortunately, I was able to quickly remind myself: besides the fact that these guys have all the free-time in the world to work on their fabulous physiques, they can't "go" anywhere... AND they have done something very VERY bad in order to be put away there in the first place.
No longhaired "pen pal" from prison for me, thanks. It was hard enough just going there to visit my brother.
'Nough said!
- Ken
IMHO, the fact that 43 states manage without either long hair or beard bans, and no state limits women's hair length, tells you all you need to know.
Having only a short beard I could grow it back easily enough, but my hair would take years to grow back.
Alun
Oddly, Western Maryland is marked light gray, whilst the rest of the state is not. A drafting error?
Issues are similar in this case, now underway regarding prisoners' beards:
Prisoner beard case
Hopefully this is a win for Native rights. It would be niceto see this in the employment arena too. It looks for me like I am going to be fighting for Native rights with corporate soon. It appears that I am finally goingto get ahold of a complete handbook. Hopefully this works in the court to cover Native rights inboth prison and out, it is about time.