Texas pays to train prisoner for job the state then won't let him have

The Austin Statesman's Eric Dexheimer has an item about an ex-TDCJ prisoner who was trained while in prison as a barber on the taxpayers dime but was then turned down for licensing ("State government giveth, then taketh away," June 6). Asked Dexheimer, "Why would one branch of the state government buy a citizen something with public money only to then to have another branch take it away a few months later?" Why, indeed!

in an unusually eloquent presentation to Department of Licensing and Regulation commissioners, [Lynn] Mays noted that the cost of barber training wasn’t the only bill citizens had footed on his behalf:

“When I was incarcerated, I was in a correctional facility that was run by the state of Texas. Taxpayer money paid for programs that are called rehabilitation programs, therapeutic programs, that I successfully went through…I’m not here because I’ve broken the law; I’m here because I want to work. I’m asking for a chance to prove the system works.”

They denied him, anyway. The reason:

“Barbers have direct contact with members of the general public, often in settings with no one else present, and a person with a predisposition for crimes involving prohibited sexual conduct would have the opportunity to engage in further similar conduct.”

Mays, agency staff concluded, had not been out of prison enough time to demonstrate that he’d been rehabilitated.

Ironically, at the events Grits attended this week on forensic science, a frequent refrain lamenting the lack of qualifications in certain fields was that people are required to be licensed to cut hair but need no particular certification to perform most forensic analyses with the notable exception of DNA testing. Perhaps Mr. Mays should pursue a job at a crime lab?

MORE: From Texas Watchdog.