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- Nov 22, 2008
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Sorry, but this sounds completely screwy to me.
In my extremely limited understanding of prison religion, there is a list of "recognized" religions that merit official accommodation. It may be that Rastafarianism doesn't make the list, but isn't a solid relationship with one's Higher Power supposed to be a gold mine for rehabilitation? I'd be curious to know more about the "other inmates" who refuse to cut their hair - are they Sikhs perhaps? Or some other religious denomination not officially sanctioned by the prison system? If these guys feel strongly enough about it to volunteer for a decade in solitary confinement it can't be just about the fashion statement or exploiting a legal loophole.
I know that rules are rules, especially in such a highly structured environment. But in a time when many prison systems around the country are releasing inmates for lack of resources why are they tying up bed space intended for the higher risk prisoners? If they weren't incarcerated in maximum security in the first place it would seem that they're lower risk, so wouldn't it make more sense to resolve the issue another way?
More to the point, if these presumably lower-risk inmates are displacing the murderers et al, where do these higher-risk people go? And for the long-haired inmates taking up space in solitary, what happens when other inmates need to be punished for something real like assaulting a guard and they have no place to use for that? I can't imagine they get to trade places with the Rastas at Club Fed.
Or for that matter, why don't they just hold the Rastas down and clip them by force? I'm not advocating it, but it seems a lot simpler than tying up all these resources. The whole thing seems like a totally disproportionate response to a simple problem.
Edit: When I went back and clicked on the above link again, for some reason it brought up a longer story that answered some of my questions. But not all of them. ;-)
In my extremely limited understanding of prison religion, there is a list of "recognized" religions that merit official accommodation. It may be that Rastafarianism doesn't make the list, but isn't a solid relationship with one's Higher Power supposed to be a gold mine for rehabilitation? I'd be curious to know more about the "other inmates" who refuse to cut their hair - are they Sikhs perhaps? Or some other religious denomination not officially sanctioned by the prison system? If these guys feel strongly enough about it to volunteer for a decade in solitary confinement it can't be just about the fashion statement or exploiting a legal loophole.
I know that rules are rules, especially in such a highly structured environment. But in a time when many prison systems around the country are releasing inmates for lack of resources why are they tying up bed space intended for the higher risk prisoners? If they weren't incarcerated in maximum security in the first place it would seem that they're lower risk, so wouldn't it make more sense to resolve the issue another way?
More to the point, if these presumably lower-risk inmates are displacing the murderers et al, where do these higher-risk people go? And for the long-haired inmates taking up space in solitary, what happens when other inmates need to be punished for something real like assaulting a guard and they have no place to use for that? I can't imagine they get to trade places with the Rastas at Club Fed.
Or for that matter, why don't they just hold the Rastas down and clip them by force? I'm not advocating it, but it seems a lot simpler than tying up all these resources. The whole thing seems like a totally disproportionate response to a simple problem.
Edit: When I went back and clicked on the above link again, for some reason it brought up a longer story that answered some of my questions. But not all of them. ;-)
