I read in the Boston Herald an article about inmates doing time in beauty school. http://news.bostonherald.com/news/regional/general/view.bg?articleid=1080673&srvc=home&position=5. I have to say that I was shocked, and dismayed at the level of vehemence and intolerance that this article activated for people. Inmate issues are all of our issues. We do have a responsibility to create functioning human beings that come out of prisons. To continue to have disregard for humanity and dignity of all people, troubled or not, is the crime. We cannot continue to put people behind bars, build more prisons(which puts money in the hands of wealthy developers), and give them no way to support themselves when they come out. I say kudos to the inmates for wanting to better themselves, to the woman who trained them, and to the facility for being forward thinking, in what seems a very narrow sighted community.
The fact that these inmates took to hairdressing, is a sign that something was sparked inside of them. What better situation could we provide, but an environment to help connect them to their own creative expression. Helping people to develop skills in communication, caring for others, job training, and creativity seems our duty.
Creative expression, in whatever form, is essential to all living beings, and to not have it, foster it, has dire consequences. I was simply delighted to read this article.