A prison that denied an Indigenous inmate’s request to wear a religious headband four times will now have to let him wear it and update its policies regarding similar requests, a Rhode Island judge ruled.

A complaint filed in January 2024 argued that the Rhode Island Department of Corrections violated the religious rights of Wolf Pawochawog-Mequinosh, who is incarcerated at the Adult Correctional Institutions in Cranston.

More than a year after the complaint was filed, a judge has ruled that the prison can’t stop Pawochawog-Mequinosh from wearing the headband, according to an April 30 settlement agreement.

RIDOC officials emphasized the importance of restrictions around religious items for security purposes while expressing their support for the agreement in a May 6 statement provided to McClatchy News.

“I am pleased we were able to work with our counterparts to resolve this matter in way that both acknowledges the constitutional rights of our population and preserves our efforts to maintain safety in our secure facilities,” RIDOC Director Wayne T. Salisbury Jr. said in the statement.

Religious exemption requests denied

Pawochawog-Mequinosh, who was raised in the White Mountain Apache Tribe tradition, began trying to get permission to wear a traditional religious cloth headband that expresses “his Apache faith and the unity of the tribe and spirits” in 2019, according to the complaint.

While the Federal Bureau of Prisons recognizes Native American headbands as religious items, the state-run prison in Rhode Island did not, and denied Pawochawog-Mequinosh’s requests on four separate occasions, the complaint said.

“(RIDOC’s) denial of Wolf’s requests to obtain and wear an Apache headband has caused Wolf severe daily distress, as he is unable to express his religious traditions and beliefs as he sincerely understands them,” attorneys said.

What made it especially difficult for Pawochawog-Mequinosh is that on multiple occasions when corresponding with officials about his request, he would be asked to choose between religious practices because his particular tradition was not recognized in the prison’s system, according to the complaint.

In the prison’s system, Pawochawog-Mequinosh’s religious designation was listed as “Pagan/Wiccan” which he had chosen as the closest fit to his beliefs based on advice from the RIDOC counselor, according to the complaint. The system did not include a “Native American” religious designation.

In choosing this designation, he was able to get significant religious items, like tarot cards and rune stones, and attend religious ceremonies consistent with the White Mountain Apache Tribe tradition, but wearing an Apache headband was not permitted, attorneys said.

On multiple requests, RIDOC officials used his religious designation to justify denying him the right to obtain and wear a headband, according to the complaint.

Religious rights upheld

In April, the court sided with Pawochawog-Mequinosh by ruling that the prison must allow him to both wear the religious headband and retain access to religious items he was already using, according to the settlement.

The judge also gave the RIDOC a 120-day deadline to implement procedures for inmates in similar situations whose religion isn’t identified in the system, according to the settlement. The prison system also has to pay $40,000 in attorneys’ fees to Pawochawog-Mequinosh’s legal council.

Cranston is about a five-mile drive southwest from Providence.

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