Serving time behind bars can feel demoralizing, nerve-wracking and hopeless.
Yet, that’s not the stated goal of jail – at least not the La Plata County Jail in Durango.
In addition to keeping the community safe, part of the jail’s mission is to provide inmates with counseling, drug and alcohol therapy, educational opportunities, and worker programs, according to its website.
Gilbert Shawcroft wants to give inmates something more: a feeling of self-dignity.
A good haircut, he said, fulfills a basic need and can give inmates a sense of self-confidence, like when they are standing before a judge pleading for leniency.
“I think everybody deserves a good haircut,” he said.
Shawcroft, a Durango native, is no stranger to life behind bars. Twenty years ago, he was the inmate getting his hair cut.
Since then, he has straightened out his life and opened The Chill Spot Barbershop in the 3100 block of Main Avenue, which has been recognized four years in a row as best barbershop in Durango and La Plata County in a reader-choice competition.
When the contract opened in 2021 for a new barber at the La Plata County Jail, Shawcroft leapt at the opportunity.
“For me, being as I was that guy, I like going in there cutting hair,” he said. He cuts hair two days a month from inside the jail.
GS: They have clippers in the pods they can pass around to each other, right? But I mean, most people like to feel good. Look good. Feel good. Having that ability to get your hair cut by somebody is a lot better. If you have a good haircut when you go to court, I feel like the judge is a little more apt to take you seriously. Because I’ve been in front of the judge and not had a haircut, and I feel like I didn’t get taken seriously. So having somebody come from the outside gives that ability to get a good haircut, be ready for court.
No, nobody’s ever gotten out of line, there’s never been an issue. I might have had an inmate be like, ‘Just do what I want,’ and get a little sassy. You’re in my chair. I’ll tell him ‘You requested it and I can deny your request.’ I could say, ‘You’re being rude,’ and ‘Take them back to their cell.’ I do have that ability, but I haven’t had to. I just get sassy right back with him.
They see me. All the tattoos, the face tattoos, jewelry, all the things and they go ‘OK, he’s not just some square off the street cutting hair.’ Then they ease a little bit into it. And then you start talking to them and they can tell. There’s certain verbiage we can use with each other that we can understand. Where we are, where we been. It breaks down a wall, to be able to communicate and have more comfort.
We have another business. So we have two businesses, I do the jail. We’ve got six kids, who all got their own things going on. My wife, she’s the biggest part of why I’m able to do this, because if she wasn’t handling things with the kids and running them where they got to go, running the other business, doing orders, I wouldn’t be able to be at the shop five to six days a week; be at the jail twice a month.
My appreciation for being out here, for sure. I had forgotten what it was like to be inside that wall. I mean, those locked doors, there’s a sound you can never forget. A lot of people don’t feel that sound, they’ll never know what that sound is like. When that heavy 400-pound metal door swings shut, and it locks, and that locking engages, it’s different. It’s not a door shutting; it’s loud. ... I know I’m coming out at the end of the day because I know I’ve stayed out of trouble. I know I don’t have any warrants anymore. Nobody’s looking for me, and I haven’t committed any crime. So, at the end of the day, I know I’m good. But there’s still that in the back of your head when you hear that sound. Your body, your heart, never forgets that. It’s ingrained in you forever. I spent a lot of time locked up, so it’s not fun.
So I can’t really turn people down based off of anything like their charges. As bad as it sounds like, anybody from drunk driving to child molestation and murder, it doesn’t matter. I can’t really be like, ‘No, you’re a pedophile. Sorry.’ I gotta cut the person. As long as they’re not in trouble with the jail and they’re not acting up, I cut them. It is what it is. If I find out beforehand, which I usually don’t find out beforehand – I usually don’t find out till afterward. So then it’s like, ‘Well, I’ll cut them.’ and then when they come in, I’m like, ‘OK.’ I have to keep a level mind about it all.
One hundred percent. I’m not just a barber. Even for guys on the street here. I couldn’t tell you how many guys come in here and tell me their problems. Bills, wife, kids, life, work, whatever. When I go in there, I hear the same things. Sometimes they just need somebody to talk to. Sure, they offer programs, they offer AA, they offer Axis Health, but maybe people don’t like to talk to the health people. I don’t want to go talk to a counselor, but if me and my boy can sit over here and talk for 10 minutes, I felt better than any counselors ever given me. For some people that’s the barber. We’re barbers and we’re counselors. We’re therapeutic people. For the soul, for your hair. However you want to look at it, we’re therapeutic people. Once you settle down that road and that consistency builds, they really start to open up to you. You really become more than just a barber to them.
cmaker@durangoherald.com
