The News & Observer
From Staff Reports
LILLINGTON, N.C. — State prison officials this week launched barber school classes for inmates at Harnett Correctional Institution in Lillington, the first of its kind in a North Carolina prison.
Officials with the N.C. Division of Prisons said the agency has entered an agreement with the N.C. Board of Barber Examiners and Central Carolina Community College to operate the school and barber shop job-training program at the Harnett County prison. The first barber school classes began this week, according to a news release.
The N.C. Board of Barber Examiners will award provisional licenses to 20 inmates enrolled in the first class who successfully complete the two-year program, the first as students of the barbering school and the second as apprentices in the barber shop.
Graduates of the program would then be assigned by the Division of Prisons to work as barbers for other inmates. Following release from prison, the provisionally licensed barbers would be required to appear before the barber examiners board as a final step in determining their eligibility to become fully licensed barbers.
Central Carolina Community College, which has a long-standing relationship as an educational partner with Harnett Correctional Institution, will staff and administer both the barbering program and the barber shop operation.
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