Sentenced to Solitary Confinement...For Dreadlocks?

Oh, no. It's an Onion-esque headline that invites the double-take, the collective what the...? But yes. Believe it or not, Virginia prison officials have kept a man locked up in solitary confinement for an incredible 10 years, all in response to his immensely long, thick hair.

The case is the story of a collision between Virginia Department of Corrections Operating Procedure No. 864.1 and the Rastafarian religion — which some believe forbids the faithful from cutting their hair. (That edict comes from the Bible, Numbers 6:5, "There shall no razor come upon his head.") Back in December 1999, when officials passed the regulation, requiring prisoners to keep their hair shorter than their collars, Kendall Gibson refused. Forty other prisoners did, too. They were sent into isolation units in punishment, denied visits from loved ones and other prison programming.

And Gibson, for one, never left. For 10 years, as the AP reports, he's lived in a room the size of a gas station restroom, alone.

There are only about a dozen states that have rules on prisoner hair length, mostly in the South. Though several such states also make accommodations for Rastafarians, Muslims, Sikhs, Native Americans and others whose spiritual beliefs contain admonitions against shaving or cutting hair, Virginia isn't one of them. (Unlike state prisons, federal facilities don't bother to meddle with what prisoners do with their hair.)

Even though the Supreme Court has ruled that prisoners can't be denied the right to practice their religions, prisoners have had only mixed success defending that guarantee. In 2002, a federal court ordered the Virginia Bureau of Prisons to transfer a group of Rastafarian and Muslim federal prisoners to less hair-strict facilities, and also required the federal prison system to avoid sending federal prisoners to state prisons with "burdensome grooming policies."  In 2008, though, a federal appeals court sided with Virginia, saying that a policy of liberal hair growth would empower prisoners to hide weapons or other contraband in their tresses.

At least 10 other Virginia prisoners, like Gibson, are still living in isolation as the result of their hair.

Hats off to reporter Dena Potter, who gives the story and Gibson's religion thoughtful, thorough treatment. There's no doubt that prison security is a serious issue, and needs to be treated as such. It's also hard to see how spending thousands more to keep a man locked up in solitary confinement — simply for adhering to his religion — is a serious investment toward that end.

Photo Credit: shivenis