Native American Inmates Have Religious Right to Wear Long Hair
- by: Susan V
- recipient: Alabama Department of Corrections
A fight to preserve Native American inmates’ religious rights started decades ago with the Alabama Department of Corrections. But despite protective rulings in other states, a U.S. Court of Appeals has sided with Alabama’s policy of banning long hair.
According to an article in American Jail Association by Joel West Williams, for many native tribes, long hair is an integral part of their religious beliefs and is cut only in times of mourning. Some believe their hair to be a source of energy and that they would face eternal condemnation if they died with their hair cut short, according to Color Behind Bars editor Scott Wm. Bowman.
Furthermore, banning long hair among male inmates doesn’t meet the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act’s mandate to employ the “least restrictive means of furthering” a required “compelling governmental interest” required to justify imposing this burden on the exercise of religious freedom.
Not to mention that the ban is a blatant example of sexual discrimination, since the same policy is not enforced on female inmates in Alabama prisons.
Bowman notes that Native Americans have been denied many religious rights granted to other inmates, and because this group is disproportionately incarcerated, the discrimination is intensified.
Insist the Alabama Department of Corrections remove the ban on long hair that violates Native Americans’ religious rights.
We, the undersigned, find Alabama’s policy banning long hair among male inmates discriminatory and a serious violation of some tribes’ religious rights.
Furthermore, according to Thinkprogress the Supreme Court had ruled that banning beards was unconstitutional and then remanded the Alabama case back to the District Court with instructions to take the beard ruling into consideration when deciding on the hair policy.
In “Walking the Red Road in the Iron House,” Joel West Williams makes a compelling point as to why Native Americans‘ right to long hair should not be violated. He notes that:
Historically, involuntary, forced hair cutting was a means by which Federal officials and missionaries contracted by the Federal government coerced American Indians away from their traditional religion and attempted to Christianize them during the 19th and 20th centuries (Martin, 1990; Walker, 2008). Hair has also played an important role in the enforcement of American Indian prisoners’ religious rights since 1972.
Certainly any policy that harks back to this era of egregious acts of genocide against our Native Americans should be avoided, especially, as it has been noted, demanding haircuts is not the least restrictive form of complying with security concerns.
Even though West Williams concedes that security “concerns cited by correctional facilities are important,“ these concerns are trumped by the fundamental right of free exercise of religion.
We strongly encourage the Alabama Department of Corrections to consult with the sources in this petition and to get a better understanding of how its policy banning long hair among Native American inmates is a serious violation of their fundamental right to free exercise of religion and an additional slap in the face based on the historic significance of this ban.
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