The Virginian-Pilot
Convicts are always grousing about something, aren't they?
If it's not the food (too beany), it's the jumpsuits (too colorful).
Or the haircuts (too short).
You'd think they had nothing better to do all day than complain.
Maybe they don't.
Still, I'm trying to muster some sympathy for Bernard Montoria Garris. It couldn't have been much fun for him to be strapped into a chair last month while his hair was shorn.
Then again, the 45-year-old was a guest of the Portsmouth City Jail when he got his involuntary haircut. He wasn't supposed to be having fun.
In fact, the inmate had a chance to have his hair cut in the normal way, like everyone else. He wasn't interested.
Sheriff Bill Watson gave the convict 24 hours to reconsider.
" Mr. Garris basically told me to go screw myself," the sheriff said Monday. So Watson had Garris' locks cut the hard way.
The inmate - who has since been transferred - filed a grievance.
Figures.
Garris' dreadlocks - 12 pounds of hair, according to Watson - violated a jailhouse regulation limiting length to 2 inches. That rule has been on the books since 1990, the sheriff said, but wasn't enforced until recently, after a rash of smuggling.
I'm told hair is the perfect hiding place for jailhouse contraband: Drugs. Razors. Shivs.
"One guy had a cell phone wrapped in his hair," Watson told me.
A phone? Sheesh. Cut it off.
Someone ought to remind Portsmouth's disgruntled inmates that out here in law-abiding land, you can wear your hair any way you like.
That should give them something to look forward to.
Besides, you lose all sorts of perks when you go into the big house. Freedom, for instance.
You want to wear your own clothes, sleep late and eat Cheez Doodles all day? Stay out of trouble.
You want dreads down to your shoes? Fine. Don't violate the terms of your probation.
Garris claims his dreadlocks weren't a fashion statement but rather a sign of his religion. He claims he's been a Rastafarian for more than a dozen years.
Watson said the hirsute inmate never breathed a word about being a Rasta on haircut day. Nor did Garris inform the jail of his religion.
On Monday, I talked to Capt. D.R. Kinzer, chief classification officer at the jail. She found that when Garris was booked the last three times - in 2002, '04 and '06 - his religion was listed as "none."
Odd.
But it isn't really about hair or faith. It's about the ability of the sheriff to make roughly 600 inmates conform to jailhouse regulations.
If there's one thing most convicts have in common, it's an inability to play by the rules.
When you look at it that way, Watson could be doing Portsmouth's inmates a favor.
News researcher Ann Kinken Johnson contributed to this column.
Kerry, (757) 446-2306,
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But how come....
...this guy has consistently listed his religion as "none" and didn't say anything about his religion when he was told about the enforcement of the rules? This guy is abogus career criminal! Like Kerry says...stay out of jail adn you can grow locks down to your feet.
How Humorous Some Of You Are!
For those who say Mr. Garris was a guest in Sheriff Watson's house, do you also believe Bush owns the White House? These institutions belong to "us", the American People. We have a say in how government organizations are run! We can vote, petition, rally, write legislators, blog, and so forth. Too bad Garris was in jail; but hey, remember the old Indian proverb about not " judging a man until you have walked a mile in his moccasins"? Or the old bible verse about, "judge not, lest ye be judged"? Cutting off someone's hair who has been growing it for 13 years, and while strapped to a chair, is utterly INSANE!! ACLU come on board.
Rasta not a religion Aisha
Aisha's "true facts about the rasta religion" are inherently wrong because it is not a religion...as one of the other comments said already, it is a movement...a racist one at that.
the bong
I subscribe to the Roosterfirin religion, a close variant of the Rastafarin religion, in which the great bong symbolizes our Caucasian heritage and our love of poultry. I am greatly disappointed that the culturally deficient prison systems here in Virginia do not permit me to express my religious freedoms through marijuana bong ownership and usage. The fact that I committed a felony is irrelevant; give me my bong, or if you don't, then my lawyer, who is motivated by a desire to do good - and certainly not by profit or desire for publicity - will bring suit against the Commonwealth. We will fight to correct your lack of culture and discrimination against the white Roosterfirin!
Doesn't Rastifarianism require Ganja use?
Seems to me we are already discriminating against Rastifarians in jail (and outside, but that's a different subject) since we don't allow them to use Ganja in jail. In fact, Ganja use will give them longer jail time. Ganja, of course, is Marijuana. I have no sympathy for Mr. Garris. He's come to his "religion" (if he's come to it at all) only in the jail house; we still execute born again Christians who find their faith on Death Row.
Always Religion
Everyone gets religion in prison. Why is it that these individuals that get in trouble with the law and find religion behind bars? There are rules to follow in society. If the rules are broken the rules get taken away and replaced with new rules. The ones that are set for inmates. Follow societies rules and a person can grow his or her hair down to the ground. Break the rules get new ones that do not allow long hair. Don't break the rules or laws and there would not be a problem.
True Facts about the Rastafarin Religion
Dreadlocks: The dreadlocks on a Rasta's head symbolize the Rasta roots, contrasting the straight, blonde lock of the white man. Dreads do not only portray the Rastafarian heritage, but their adornment is supported in the Bible: "They shall not make baldness upon their head, neither shall they shave off the corner of their beard, nor make any cuttings in the flesh" (Leviticus 21:5). The way the Rastas' hair grows has come to represent the symbol of the Lion of Judah. Further, dreadlocks have come to depict rebellion of the system and the "proper" way to wear hair. Mr. Garris was not treated with diginity nor respect.I hope justice is served in his favor.
Rights?
You have no rights when your a criminal! Like some others say, if his dreads were that important to him he should have stayed his tail out of jail. Now our tax dollars will be wasted as he'll probably end up winning money over this BS.
Too little, too late.
I'm all for rtespecting one's religion and beliefs but it sounds like inmate Garris is whining because the sheriff called his bluff. inmate Garris listed no religion on his booking forms Hair had been used to smuggle contraband into the jail the rule about hair length had been jail policy for 17yrs. All other inmates complied even after inmate Garris did not the sheriff gave him 24hrs to think about it before cutting Garris' hair and religion wasn't even brought up then. He is an inmate in a prison and a repeat offender. Obviuosly he has a problem playing by the rules. I'm glad the sheriff stood up to him.
Fair enough
However, there should be no bibles, chapels, or other religious exceptions in jail either. You do not have to take someone elses religion seriously to repect it. So rastas have different hair and some other peculiar habits. Muslims worship a box and a man who was beamed into the sky. Christians believe in raising of the dead and arks. Jews believe in the adventures of Moses. His hair is a religious item just as a bible is to be considered by law. On the technical side i believe his rights were trampled in this case.
I respectfuly dissagree
If someone stated tha their reasons for their hair have to do wih riligion then they should be permitted to keep their customs.
Growing up in New Jersey....
I remember reading newspapers and seeing criminals sentenced to "6 months in the workhouse" or "90 days in the workhouse" and the like. I guess we've gotten too "touchy-feelly". In Lambertville, just north of Trenton, there is half-a-mountain. You can actually see the different layers of rock in cross-section. That, my friend, was the work of inmates. If those kinds of sentences were still given, I'm sure the jails would be a lot less populated.
I'm crying huge tears
Inmates should be worked dawn to dusk, have their heads shaved, wear pink jumpers with stripe, have no tv, radio or anything else. Jail/prison should not be a place someone wants to be.
Respect for your host....
The upstanding gentleman, Mr Garris, is a guest in Sheriff Watson's house, and as such should respect the rules of that house. If Mr Garris doesn't like the rules imposed by the sheriff on visitors to his house, then I recommend that he decline further invitations to be the sheriff's guest. Mr Garris does have a choice, after all, whether or not to be Sheriff Watson's guest, doesn't he?
Rastafarian is a movement, not a religion.
It was made up in the 1930's, there are six fundamentals of Rastafarian; 1)Hatred for the white race. 2)The complete superiority of the black race. 3)Revenge on whites for their wickedness. 4)The negation, persecution, and humiliation of the government and legal bodies of Jamaica. 5)Preparation to go back to Africa. 6)Acknowledging Emperor Haile Selassie as the Supreme Being and only ruler of black people. I'd be willing to bet that Garris didn't find Rastafarian until he lawyered up. Can you imagine the outcry if a "movement" stated one of their fundamentals as "Hatred of all black people"...Oh wait there is! and we rightfully and openly disagree and condem their fundamentals and believes. Why is Rastafarian not treated the same?