A federal judge in Macon ordered the Georgia Department of Corrections to amend its policies  to allow inmates to grow beards up to 3 inches long, if their religious beliefs forbid shaving.

Senior Judge W. Louis Sands of the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Georgia wrote that the GDOC policy—which was already relaxed to allow half-inch beards to accommodate a 2015 U.S. Supreme Court ruling—was still in violation of federal law governing the religious rights of prisoners.