Grooming convicts for a second chance
Haynesville Correctional Center’s barbershop program exemplifies success of returning citizens with perfect passing rate.
This story won a third place Virginia Press Association award along with two other stories in the non-daily feature writing portfolio category.
Rain splashed at the feet of four men as they nervously walked down the boulevard at Haynesville Correctional Center. They each took deep breaths, looking around them at the world they were once a part of. They walked the same path they took as inmates, but today they walked as returning citizens. Even though the dreary weather made the walk longer, they could only concentrate on their overwhelming emotions as they re-entered the building where it all started.
This was the first time back since Antoine Carey, Jessie Morris, Marcious Cousins, and Michael Turpin’s walked out of the facility as free men. They weren’t returning for a leisurely visit. They weren’t returning for lack of cooperation. They returned to inspire the future of Haynesville’s barber program and to prove that the license they were all working so hard to receive, was worth more than anything.
Debbie Howard, Offender Workforce Development Specialist and a key player in setting up the Sept. 27 barber seminar, said, “They’re coming back from a different perspective. They’re not locked up anymore,” as she trailed behind them through the doors.
Turpin, 39, known as “Jerk” in his 16 years behind bars, joked about how he might tear up when he saw his former instructor. When the men entered the barber program room, a wave of applause from the current barbering students and apprentices greeted them. They couldn’t help themselves from hugging some old friends as they made their way to front.
The Haynesville barber program is 23 years old and the man behind the magic is Robert “Ant” Fauntleroy, owner of Ebony and Ivory Unisex Hair Salon in Warsaw. “The gift that God gave me needed to be shown somewhere where it will make a difference. I never thought it’d come to this magnitude,” said Fauntleroy as he looked around the room filled with students and apprentices, “You can get success out of someone who’s made a mistake in life.”
According to George “Win” Sisson, Virginia Department of Corrections Communications Specialist, there is only one other program of its kind in the state of Virginia. Each individual inmate receives a two-part test to receive their state barber’s license after completing the 12- to 14-month program. Out of the 650 students that have taken their barber’s license test, 650 have passed. Some have even received an instructor’s license.
The success of the program has overcome the hesitation of putting shears and scissors into the hands of convicted citizens. Sisson stated that Virginia has one of the lowest recidivism rates in the country, second only to Oklahoma. Programs that give offenders something tangible when reentering their community help keep these rates low.
Howard stated, “To have the volumes and numbers he has produced and they’re out there working is miraculous.”
Carey, Morris, Cousins, and Turpin are not just working. They are each thriving. Carey, originally from Essex County, has his own business, cleverly named Faded and Company. He operates out of a small, rented space at Phenix Salon Suites in Fredericksburg.
Both Turpin and Morris work in a shop the Norfolk area. Cousins is at shop in Ashland. None of the men had picked up a pair of clippers before entering Fauntleroy’s class.
Turpin, a Norfolk native, claimed he was hired ten days after being released from Haynesville in March of this year. He waited four years to get in the barber program, hassling Fauntleroy and the students to get in sooner. “I never lost sight that prison wasn’t my home,” he said. So he worked to make sure when he finally got released, he would have a home. He joked about the money he makes as a barber, saying the only thing he doesn’t have is a driver’s license.
The adjustment to working and cutting hair on the outside hasn’t been easy for him. “It hits me in increments that I’m free,” Turpin stated. The skills he learned with Fauntleroy gave him more than a career. It gave him a level of professionalism that others don’t have.
Morris, from Fredericksburg, was released in January. As the only Caucasian in his barber class, he was often told to give up. He was the only one in the group that didn’t leave Haynesville with a license, but worked consistently to earn it. His first check was for $22, but now he drives an Infiniti. “My license never said Haynesville, but it doesn’t matter because I know where I came from,” he said.
“Nobody can take that license away from you,” said Cousins, who was released almost a year ago. Along with the other men, he emphasized the importance of sanitation and safety, something they learned heavily in Fauntleroy’s class.
The men all agreed the barber program gave them purpose outside. Being members of a cognitive community at the facility have also aided in their reentry process. According to Morgan Corpe, a cognitive counselor at Haynesville, the communities are formed with inmates that are within a year of being released. It teaches things such as anger management and parenting skills, offering real-life scenarios the offenders may encounter after being released.
After the seminar-style homecoming, the men were allowed more time to catch up with the barber students before they had to return to their dorms. Carey passed out business cards with information for the students, ensuring he could be used as a networking tool to help them once they got released.
Carey said a part of him will always be at Haynesville and he’ll take a part of those inmates back out with him. Although he came back to that room in a different uniform than the inmate blue the students surrounding him wore, he stated, “This was a family.”
Read on the Northern Neck News website → http://www.northernnecknews.com/haynesville-correctional-centers-barber-program-exemplifies-success-for-returning-citizens/
