Prison inmates can now grow longer beards

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — The Arkansas Board of Corrections has decided that prison inmates can grow longer beards for religious reasons.

The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette  reports the ruling is a response to a case filed by inmate Gregory Houston Holt, who goes by the name Abdul Maalik Muhammad.

In the case filed against the then-prison director, Ray Hobbs, Muhammad claimed that his religious rights as a Muslim were violated when his request to grow a half-inch beard was denied.

The state argued that inmates could hide dangerous contraband within their beards, but the U.S. Supreme Court rejected that argument. Now the Board of Corrections has adopted the change for its prison system.

For security reasons, inmates who request a religious exemption must have two different photos —one with a beard and one without— for their identification cards.

Arkansas Deputy Attorney General David Curran said recently most prison systems in the country allow beards without a length restriction.

The department's previous policy, which stated that inmates could have a “neatly trimmed mustache that does not extend beyond the corner of the mouth or over the lip,” had no religious exemptions. The policy, adopted in 1998, also requires male inmates to have their hair cut above the ears and above the nape of their neck.