By Don Jacobs
Knoxville News-Sentinel
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Things are starting to get a little hairy at Knox County correctional facilities.
Despite a 30-year prohibition against facial hair for officers of the Knox County Sheriff’s Office, the sprouting stubble among 189 correction officers is just fine with Sheriff Jimmy “J.J.” Jones.
Jones agreed to temporarily suspend his general order that allowed only mustaches on employees when approached by an assistant chief whose correction officers wanted to raise money for an in-house charity.
When Jones took the reins of the Sheriff’s Office, he continued the no-beard policy of his predecessors.
“I don’t think it looks professional,” the sheriff said.
Last year, however, he grew a beard as part of the American Cancer Society’s No Shave November fundraising effort. The fundraiser depended on participants to donate the money they normally would spend for haircuts or shaving during the month to the American Cancer Society.
Jones said he had lost his father and brother to cancer and his mother is a breast cancer survivor.
This year, however, Assistant Chief of Corrections and Personnel Rodney Bivens approached the sheriff with an idea hatched by correction officers to raise money for the Lt. Dave Moody Officer Assistance Fund. Why not, the officers proposed, let each officer donate a minimum of $20 to the fund and grow a beard during No Shave November?
Jones said if Bivens could get 25 correction officers to participate, he would not only suspend his beard prohibition, but donate $1,000 himself to the fund.
“The next thing I knew, there was over a hundred people who agreed to participate,” the sheriff said. With that kind of enthusiasm, Jones opted to hike his personal donation to $1,500.
The Lt. Dave Moody Officer Assistance Fund is in honor of Moody, who died in 2003 of a heart attack just days before his retirement, Bivens said. Moody was a correction officer.
“Every year at Christmas, he’d give the chaplain a $100 bill and say, ‘If you know of an officer’s family that needs help, use this,’” said Sheriff’s Office Assistant Chief Brian Bivens, who is not related to Assistant Chief Rodney Bivens.
Brian Bivens is married to Moody’s daughter, Julie.
“Any officer who’s having financial problems — and they don’t make much money — they let us know and we do a gift card for the kids, a turkey and a food basket for the family, things like that,” Rodney Bivens said.
While help from the fund is most needed during the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays, it also provides aid when an officer’s house burns or an officer is involved in a vehicle crash. Funds are helping an officer’s child who makes regular trips to Florida for medical treatments, Brian Bivens said.
The fund is supported by officer donations and various fundraisers.
Rodney Bivens said the No Shave November effort already has raised more than $5,000 for the fund. The idea has been so successful, correction officers and administrators asked for an extension on the beard growing with donations for a Double Down December.
Jones laughed and quickly agreed to the extra month, although he doesn’t expect his face to participate.
“It’s a great cause,” he said.