Locks Land Prisoners In Solitary
Some Virgin Islands prisoners are being forced to choose between their religion and solitary confinement in a Virginia prison.
According to the attached column from RaceWire.org, this week marks the sixth year that six Rastafarian prisoners from the Virgin Islands will spend in solitary confinement for refusing to cut their dreadlocks. Per their religion, men must remain unshorn. But their refusal puts them in violation of the prison’s “grooming policy” so they have been placed in isolation.
According to Kim Lyons, many VI prisoners in stateside prisons face the same dilemma – defy their jailers or betray their beliefs.
Lyons is the leader of the VI Prison Project, an organization dedicated to returning Virgin Islands prisoners incarcerated on the mainland to the VI.
For more information, visit the project website at http://viprisonproject.wordpress.com/
If any rastafarian believes that his/her hair length means more to a God than remorse and acceptance for the crime committed that landed their butt in jail, then there is a problem.
The convict has been given a choice, and they know the resulting outcome of their choice. What about the victim? Where was their choice? Screw the hair. If a convicted criminal doesn’t like being in solitary, then cut the hair. It’s a small price compared to the victim’s.
Does a rastafarian get to keep long hair even if they killed, raped, molested, or disfigured an innocent person? Hair grows back. Scars are always there. Too bad Rasta’s, your religion can’t save your poor choices, just like Christians or Muslims or Jews don’t get hair priviledges.
Taken from an online web page outlining Ras Tafari:
Founder: Marcus Garvey’s philosophy is credited as the beginning point.
Founding Date: 1930
Official Publication: None
Organization Structure: No official church buildings or leaders. Each individual group and person is autonomous.
One of its early leaders was Leonard Howell, who in 1933 was “arrested by the Jamaican government for preaching a revolutionary doctrine”….DOCTRINE
As Cashmore has observed, “The belief system of Ras Tafari was so vague and loosely defined, even at its inception, due to its lack of a single authoritative voice, that what was to be acceptable doctrine was largely a matter of individual interpretation” (Rastaman, p. 7).
Early in the history of the movement, Leonard Howell gave the Rastafarians six principles. “(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; and (6) acknowledging Emperor Haile Selassie as the Supreme Being and only ruler of Black people”. As Barrett notes, “This first glimpse of the new doctrine that launched the Rastafarian movement has not changed significantly over the years”
I totally agree with #1(SORRY)comments. What about the victims? Those who are away in prison are some of the worst offenders. Yet they want all the rights in the world. The DEAD can no longer choose. In my opinion they should just cut off their hair. They should be thankful they are still among the living.
He need them cuff in jail that he aint geh when he was a bwoy!! Convicted and STILL refusing to respect authority figures and adhere to rules and regulations. Unbelievable! I hope none of you take up his stupid cause.