Rhode Island’s Department of Corrections has agreed to let an Indigenous man incarcerated at the Adult Correctional Institutions (ACI) in Cranston wear a headband reflecting the religious practices of his tribe.
That largely resolves a federal lawsuit filed in January 2024 by the ACLU of Rhode Island and the Roger Williams University (RWU) School of Law Prisoners’ Rights Litigation Clinic. The suit accused the state prison system of violating inmate Wolf Pawochawog-Mequinosh’s right to freely exercise his religion under the federal Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act.
Pawochawog-Mequinosh and the state reached the agreement on April 30. Under the terms, the Department of Corrections will cover the $40,000 in legal fees and $405 in costs to the plaintiff’s lawyers, Jared Goldstein, director of the RWU Law legal clinic and ACLU cooperating attorney Lynette Labinger.
Pawochawog-Mequinosh, who is serving a life sentence at the ACI for two first-degree sexual assault convictions, sued the department in January 2024 after he claimed prison administrators repeatedly denied his request to wear a White Mountain Apache Tribe headband. Formerly known as Brian Brownell of Tiverton, he was sentenced in August 2023.
Prison officials denied the requests because his religion is designated as “Pagan/Wiccan” in the department’s data management system. The Department of Corrections did not offer a religious designation for those who follow Native American religious traditions, according to the lawsuit.
The settlement gives the Department of Corrections 120 days to establish a way for inmates whose religions are not explicitly recognized by the prison to request approval for religious items and services consistent with their beliefs.
The ACLU and the RWU Law legal clinic will have up to 30 days to determine if the settlement terms have been fulfilled.
“This case reflects a fundamental principle: People in prison may lose their liberty but they cannot be deprived of their humanity, and the free exercise of religion is a basic human right,” Goldstein said in a statement Wednesday.
Department of Corrections spokesperson J.R. Ventura did not immediately respond to request for comment.
This story was originally published by the Rhode Island Current.
