10 years in prison isolation for hair

[Jim Johnson]

http://www.bostonherald.com/news/national/south/view.bg?articleid=1253446&srvc=rss&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+bostonherald+%28Home+-+BostonHerald.com%29

Rasta inmates spend 10 years in isolation for hair
By Associated Press
Saturday, May 8, 2010 - Added 0m ago

JARRATT, Virginia — From his treatment, Kendall Gibson would seem to be one of the state of Virginia's most dangerous prisoners.

For more than 10 years he has lived in segregation at the Greensville Correctional Center, spending at least 23 hours every day in a cell the size of a gas station bathroom. In a temporary home for the worst of the worst — inmates too violent or disruptive to live among the rest of society's outcasts — he has been a permanent fixture.

He is there, he says, not for his crimes but for a crime he will not commit — a crime against God.

The only thing imposing about Gibson is his long black dreadlocks, resting on the front of his shoulders so they won't drag the ground as he shuffles along in his orange jumpsuit.

It is his hair — winding locks he considers a measure of his Rastafarian faith — that makes him a threat, according to Virginia Department of Corrections Operating Procedure No. 864.1.

The rule took effect on Dec. 15, 1999. Inmates had two choices: cut their hair no longer than their collars and shave their beards, or be placed in administrative segregation.

In the beginning, Gibson was among as many as 40 inmates who opted for confinement over cutting. By 2003, when a handful of the inmates filed a federal lawsuit against the department over their detention, 23 remained in segregation.

The lawsuit failed. Some cracked under the pressure of constant isolation with no visits from loved ones, educational or religious programs or commissary. Some went home.

Today, it is difficult to tell exactly how many remain in isolation. The Department of Corrections will not volunteer the information but has confirmed 10 names given to The Associated Press by a group of Rastafarian inmates.

Not everyone can handle it, Gibson says. For those weak in mind or spirit, the walls can easily close in on them.

"People always ask how I can smile in a place so negative," he says. The Rastafarian God, Jah, "is my answer. Without Jah in my life I wouldn't be able to handle it."

[Pat McCotter]

Here is the remainder of the AP article the Herald did not publish:

http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/Rasta-inmates-spend-10-years-in-isolation-for-hair

Like most of the Rastafarians in segregation, Gibson didn't become a believer until after he entered prison. He was 18 and had a long time to do, sentenced to 47 years on robbery, abduction and gun charges.

Gibson never entertained the thought of cutting his hair when the policy was announced or during the 10 long years since. "Jah didn't lead I to feel that this plight was burden enough to bow," he says.

Gibson longs to hear reggae music. A clear analog radio that picks up about nine stations is his only luxury in his small cell, but the island music doesn't get much air time in these parts.

His days are long but compact. Five days a week, he is led in restraints to an outside cage that resembles a dog kennel for an hour of recreation. Otherwise, he only leaves his 8-by-10 cell for three, 20-minute showers each week.

The segregation unit has 16 cells, and although the inmates can't see each other they often talk. Gibson is amazed at what he calls their pure confusion and senseless babbling — obsession with the lives of movie stars and rappers and sports figures.

And then there are the other Rastafarians. "These people may have my physical body confined, but I refuse to surrender my mind and spirit," says Allen McRae, also known as Ras-Solomon Tafari, who is serving 20 years for cocaine possession.

Elton Williams, who is behind bars for armed robbery, gets the question all the time from inmates pulling stints in segregation. Wouldn't it be easier just to cut his hair?

His answer: "My very soul depends on the decisions I make."

Williams, 31, likens it to a Christian who is told that, for security reasons, he must denounce Christ. Williams is set to leave prison in December; he could cut his hair until then, he says, but what would happen to his soul?

Then there was Ivan Sparks, a 59-year-old Rastafarian elder who refused to cut his hair and was sent into segregation at Buckingham Correctional Center.

He never left it — except to die at Virginian Commonwealth University Medical Center last fall, of prostate cancer.

The way Department of Corrections officials see it, the inmates could come out of segregation any time they wish.

They made a choice to go to segregation instead of cutting their hair, spokesman Larry Traylor says. Should they decide to comply with the grooming policy, they could return to general population.

"Rules must be in place in order to have a secure, safe environment for everyone," Traylor said. "An inmate that will not follow the rules jeopardises normal prison operations and is potentially a danger to other inmates and staff."

Virginia is among only about a dozen states, mostly in the South, that limit the length of inmates' hair and beards, according to the American Correctional Chaplains Association. A handful of those allow religious accommodations for Rastafarians, Muslims, Sikhs, native Americans and others whose religious beliefs prohibit shaving or cutting their hair.

[Jim Johnson]

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2010/06/30/va-inmates-segregation-grooming-policy-cite-religious-reasons/?test=latestnews

50 Va. Inmates in Segregation Over Grooming Policy, Several Cite Religious Reasons

Published June 30, 2010

Associated Press

RICHMOND, Va. -- Nearly 50 Virginia prisoners are being held in perpetual isolation because they refuse to cut their hair, several for religious reasons.

The Associated Press reported in May that 10 Rastafarian inmates had been in segregation for more than 10 years for refusing to comply with the state's grooming policy, which calls for hair to be kept above the shirt collar and bans beards. The Department of Corrections confirmed the status of those inmates then, but wouldn't reveal how many others were being segregated for not cutting their hair.

Secretary of Public Safety Marla Graff Decker ordered the department to put together a list of all inmates who were being held in isolation because of the policy, department spokesman Larry Traylor said. Traylor refused to provide the list to the AP, but divulged the numbers.

The review found that 48 inmates were being held in segregation for refusing to follow the policy. Of those, 13 are Rastafarians, who view growing their hair unbridled as a tenet of their religion.

Traylor said he did not know the remaining inmates' religions or reasons for disregarding the policy, nor did he know how long those others had been in segregation. The policy went into effect Dec. 15, 1999.

Taylor Thornley, a spokeswoman for Gov. Bob McDonnell and Decker, would not comment on whether the review means officials are considering changing the policy.

"She was merely doing due diligence in her role as Secretary of Public Safety," Thornley said of Decker, who refused to be interviewed.

Traylor said the corrections department was not contemplating a change. If the prisoners choose to cut their hair, they can come out of segregation, he said.

In addition to the Rastafarians, it is likely that Muslims, Jews, Hindus, Native Americans and others whose religious beliefs call for them not to cut their hair account for many of the others being segregated, said Kent Willis, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia.

"It really is appalling to think that nearly 50 individuals are in the cruel confines of indefinite segregation solely because DOC had a hunch that they might be a security risk," Willis said.

"It is time for DOC to make the right decision and eliminate this policy," he said.

The department says the policy is needed to prevent inmates from hiding contraband, such as weapons, in their long hair or beards, and also to keep them from quickly changing their appearance if they escape.

Virginia is among only about a dozen states, mostly in the South, that limit the length of inmates' hair and beards, according to the American Correctional Chaplains Association. A handful of those allow religious accommodations for those whose religious beliefs prohibit cutting their hair.

There is no hair policy for federal prisoners.

While the U.S. Supreme Court has said rights, such as that to practice religion, do not end at the prison gates, inmates have rarely been successful fighting such policies in court.

In 2003, the ACLU helped a group of Rastafarian and Muslim prisoners challenge the Virginia policy, but it was unsuccessful.

Willis said the policy runs counter to well-accepted ideals that inmates who are religious are generally less likely to be a security risk.

Traylor said a review of prison records shows that an additional 291 inmates -- out of nearly 33,000 systemwide -- claim to be Rastafarian but are complying with the grooming policy.
Upon entering prison, inmates' hair is shaved. If he or she grows it back, the prisoner could face segregation.

Rastafarians like Kendall Gibson -- who is serving 47 years on robbery, abduction and gun charges -- have lived in segregation for more than a decade rather than lose their hair.
Those who have been fighting from outside prison hope the new numbers will convince those of other religious denominations to join the effort.

"Any denomination being held in this fashion, to me it's unconscionable," said Corey Fauconier, a Richmond Rastafarian and singer who wrote a song about those being held in segregation.

Fauconier wrote several letters for McDonnell and former Gov. Timothy M. Kaine, but neither responded. Department of Corrections officials wrote to him defending the policy but offered Fauconier the chance to visit the Rastafarian inmates on holy days.

"I'm not expecting the world to change overnight," Fauconier said. "I'm saying why can't we all sit down at a table and try to work through it together so that the situation becomes a little bit better, because the way it is now is not acceptable."

[dalebert]

God damn hippies.

[Fluff and Stuff]

And then there are the other Rastafarians. "These people may have my physical body confined, but I refuse to surrender my mind and spirit," says Allen McRae, also known as Ras-Solomon Tafari, who is serving 20 years for cocaine possession.

That is so sad.

[Russell Kanning]

sounds very similar to my short experiences in jail
very crazy in this case that the issue is hair .... but it would just be something else for the cops