URGENT PLEASE HELP!

When Raymond Morrison began the study of Orthodox Judaism in 1997, he threw himself into the endeavor. He wanted to take up the faith of his ancestors, and be wanted to leave behind the life he'd been living. He started studying with a rabbi, following dietary strictures and growing a beard. Everything was going well until they changed the rules where Ray lives -- the state prison.

By WILLIAM P. WARFORD (Wpwcolumn@aol.co)

Prison Grooming Rules: Persecution or Common Sense?

The, Department of Corrections has rules against beards and long hair, and they make a certain amount of sense. Still, it seems ironic that our federal government bends over backward to give prayer mats and the proper Islamic foods to the terrorists at Guantanamo Bay, but Muslims and Orthodox Jews in California prisons must be clean-shaven.

Inmates in the California prison system must wear their hair short and beards are prohibited. The rules were changed in 1998 after an incident in San Diego in which a bearded inmate managed to get his hands on some street clothes and a phony I.D., and, after shaving his beard, walked out the front gate with no one recognizing him.

"He caught a taxi from the front gate and he was gone," said Lynn Harrison, community resource manager for the California State Prison Los Angeles County in Lancaster.

Harrison said the no-beards rule is also in force for safety reasons. An inmate could conceivably hide a weapon in a long scraggy beard. She said inmates were given plenty of advance notice, and they could choose to comply or not. No one is held down and forcibly shaved or sheared. But there are consequences for refusing to comply.

Which brings us back to Ray Morrison. "My son is penalized for his belief in God," said the inmate's mother, Donna Goldstein-Kekstadt of Illinois.

The inmates who do not comply -- and Harrison says there are dozens at the Lancaster prison -- lose privileges on a gradually escalating scale. Most important, they can lose their good behavior time, which means they'll serve longer sentences. Donna Kekstadt's complaint is that the punishment goes too far, and that her son is often confined to his cell for 23 hours a day, housed with the most violent of murderers, and deprived of his Hebrew prayer books and personal items, including even his pants and his toothbrush.

She's written dozens of letters, calling on the Department of Corrections to back off on the harsh punishments. She points out that other states use digitally enhanced photos to produce images of how a bearded inmate would look without a beard. She's written to the governor, and she's seeking a transfer of her son to Illinois, where beards are allowed.

Kekstadt acknowledges that her son committed a crime and must pay for it. But she doesn't believe he should be punished for embracing Orthodox Judaism.

He was sentenced in 1997 to 10 years for a shooting.

Morrison is a Marine Corps veteran and had been gainfully employed as a mechanic, but the trouble started when he got involved with the wrong woman, and the wrong lifestyle -- the drug life. "He was convicted of shooting a drug manufacturer, who had threatened to abduct his ex-girlfriend and his child," Kekstadt said.

He has 4 1/2 years left to serve.

Statewide, there is a suit by Muslim inmates claiming beards should be allowed for religious reasons. Lynn Harrison said the only exception is for 'men with a skin condition, men whose skin can't handle a razor. 'Mere -are no exceptions for religious reasons, only medical," she said.

She did provide a book on Judaism supplied by the prison rabbi that indicates modern men can shave with clippers instead of a razor and still comply with ancient Jewish law.

That could solve everything, but Kekstadt said that, as new converts to any religion are apt to do, Morrison wants to embrace every aspect of Orthodox Judaism and thus feels compelled to fight to keep his beard.

Harrison says unless or until the rules are changed, the prison will continue to take away privileges from inmates who refuse to comply.

"I'm not giving up," said Donna Kekstadt, who plans to keep writing letters and placing phone calls to help her son. "I live in Illinois and that makes it difficult but not impossible. And I'm not giving up."