ACLU Sues Rhode Island Prison Forbidding Native Prisoner from Wearing Apache Headband

A Rhode Island prison system is denying a White Mountain Apache inmate his right to practice his religious beliefs by wearing an Apache headband, according to a lawsuit filed by American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) attorneys in Rhode Island District Court on Jan. 24.

Since 2019, plaintiff Wolf Pawochawog-Mequinosh (formerly Brian Brownell, who changed his name in 2022) has filed four petitions with prison administration at the Adult Corrections Facility in Cranston, Rhode Island, seeking permission to wear an Apache headband. But prison administrators have repeatedly denied his requests because an Apache headband is not an approved religious item in any Rhode Island Department of Corrections (RIDOC) facility.

Notably, the lawsuit notes that RIDOC allows Muslim and Jewish prisoners to wear kufis and yarmulkes, and that Native American headbands are recognized as a religious item by the Federal Bureau of Prisons.

https://nativenewsonline.net/currents/aclu-sues-rhode-island-prison-forbidding-native-prisoner-from-wearing-apache-headband