Hat tip to my friend Eva for posting this on Facebook right before Thanksgiving.  As those who read this blog regularly know, I am obsessed about hair issues.  File this one under completely RIDICULOUS.

Here’s the article:

Again, thanks to publicity and pressure, the Virginia Department of Corrections has backed away from an oppressive policy.

Citing the better management of bed space, the department announced that it has relocated 31 inmates from isolation to two-person cells in units where they also will have some privileges that were previously denied them.

The terrible deed that had landed them in isolation? Refusing to cut their hair.

The Associated Press reported this past summer that 48 inmates were being segregated from the rest of the prison population for violating the grooming policy. Many were Rastafarians who do not shave or cut their hair for religious reasons (the majority of Rastafarian inmates were said to have complied with the policy).

Several other faiths also believe in letting the hair grow.

The department feared that inmates could hide drugs or weapons in their hair, or get rid of the hair to drastically alter their appearance if they escaped.

While there is legitimacy to the department’s concerns, it is hard to believe that those concerns are so acute as to require punishment by isolation.

Indeed, the department conceded so in explaining its policy change:

“While there remains a need for consequences when offenders choose not to adhere to VADOC policy, it was determined that offenders whose only offense [emphasis added] is failure to comply with the grooming policy should be housed and managed separately from the general population but did not require housing in segregation,” said department spokesperson Larry Traylor.

Other prisons have proved that hair length is not an issue. Only about a dozen states have policies limiting hair length, and some of these make accommodations for religious beliefs, according to the American Correctional Chaplains Association and reported by the AP. Federal prisons do not have restrictions on hair growth.

Yet in Virginia, some 10 inmates have spent 11 years in isolation. Eleven years just for not cutting their hair.

Now the 31 inmates involved in the transfer to new prison quarters will be housed two to a cell. They will not have all the privileges of other prisoners, but they can possess more personal property, will be able to move around inside their unit and will have access to educational and other programs.

But even this more enlightened policy might cause problems — for the prisoners, that is. Those who have been long in isolation could have trouble adjusting to a shared cell and increased unit activity.

If they have trouble adjusting to this kind of life, imagine what difficulty they would encounter being returned to society. This is another tragedy of the policy: Not only were inmates punished for a relatively minor violation, and one that for many was part of their religious faith. They also were deprived of the social contact and educational privileges that might have helped them prepare for release.

The department did the right thing in changing its policy. It’s a tragedy, however, that the change was so long in coming.

Eva made the appropriate connection though when she titled her Facebook post: “School and prisons alike trying to cut everybody’s hair!”  Several young people have been suspended from school over hair issues.  What is it with American institutions like schools, prisons, and the military and their obsession with controlling people’s hair styles?  It’s about enforcing conformity at all cost and controlling people.

One has to wonder how many other departments of corrections across the U.S. have this same policy of hauling prisoners into isolation for “grooming” violations.  It can’t only be happening in Virginia.  If anyone is aware of similar cases in other parts of the country, please let me know.