The John J. Moran Medium Security Facility at the Rhode Island Adult Correctional Institutions in Cranston, where Wolf Pawochawog-Mequinosh is serving a life sentence. (Photo by Christopher Shea/Rhode Island Current)
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…