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| Virginia Inmates Sue Over Rule on Beards, Long Hair |
| By Gwinnett Daily Post |
| Published: 07/03/2003 |
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As a Muslim, David Allen Evick Jr. believes Islam requires him to grow a beard, like Muhammad, the religion's founder. But as an inmate at the Greensville Correctional Center, Evick is barred by the prison's grooming policy from being bearded or having long hair. Convicts who ignore the rule draw longer prison stays, solitary confinement or other penalties. ''I wanted to follow my religion, do the right thing,'' Evick told The Virginian-Pilot of Norfolk in an interview published Monday. ''Still, they can say, 'You can stay here another six, seven, eight years because you refused to cut your beard.''' Evick and five other inmates are challenging the policy in a lawsuit against the state's corrections director. The plaintiffs, three Muslims and three Rastafarians who wear long dreadlocks as a religious practice, are represented by the American Civil Liberties Union. The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Richmond, asserts that the grooming policy violates the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act, which Congress enacted in 2000. The law has been used to challenge zoning regulations that restrict organized church activity to certain neighborhoods. It also protects religious expression among institutionalized people such as inmates. That right can be limited only if the government has a compelling need that can't be satisfied by less restrictive alternatives. The inmates' case will be delayed until an appellate court rules on the law's constitutionality in a separate case out of western Virginia. Prison spokesman Larry Traylor said the state needs the grooming policy to ensure that inmates can't hide weapons or drugs in long hair. The policy also forbids inmates to wear hair or beard styles that indicate gang membership. And it makes it harder for inmates to change their appearance to avoid recognition in a prison fracas or an escape, Traylor said. Evick, 34, was raised in a military family of Christians. His uncle, grandfather and godfather were Baptist ministers. In 1991, Evick and two friends were driving around Norfolk at night, looking for a prostitute, when they saw a waitress walking home from work, according to court records. They hit her on the head with a tire iron and took her, unconscious and bleeding, to their Virginia Beach apartment, where they raped her repeatedly. Evick pleaded guilty to rape and malicious wounding and was sentenced to 30 years in prison. In prison, he became a Muslim because Islam ''felt right,'' he said. ''I felt, if I want to save my soul and be a better person on Earth, I would accept this.'' Evick now is one of about 30 practicing Muslims among the roughly 3,000 inmates at Greensville. |
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