It's hard to imagine prison inmates getting pedicures—and even harder to imagine them giving them—but at Valley State Prison, a medium-security men's prison in Chowchilla, California, that's exactly what they're doing. And not just pedicures, but a full range of cosmetological offerings. Welcome to beauty prison school.
The school is a fully functioning cosmetology program that offers the same degree awarded to people on the outside. Which means that when these cons are released, they're fully qualified to begin careers as barbers, hair stylists, and beauty technicians. And given that over 75 percent of ex-convicts without any sort of education or training end up back in prison within five years—not to mention the fact that, as the video mentions, participation in prison education reduces return rates by over 40 percent—this beauty school is a pretty big deal.
If you're wondering how a men's prison ended up with a cosmetology school, the program actually started in 1996 when Valley State housed female inmates. But then when the population turned over to male, the beauty school stuck. Not only that—according to Uproxx, it actually thrived.
The program "encompasses doing hair, coloring, cutting, and then we do nails," cosmetology instructor Carmen Shehorn says. "Everything that they would have to do outside in the regular cosmetology school, they have to do here." And judging from the clip, the inmates are pretty stoked on it.
Life is tough for a convicted felon, so to see these guys—who've done their time and paid their debt to society—actually get a second chance to turn their lives around, it's pretty great.
