ACLU sues Rhode Island corrections department over Native American prisoners’ religious practices

Civil liberties advocates in the United States have launched a new lawsuit alleging Native American prisoners in Rhode Island are being denied the ability to practise their religion, including access to ceremonies, spiritual guidance, and religious items.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Rhode Island and the Roger Williams University Law Prisoners’ Rights Clinic filed the case on behalf of five Native American prisoners held at the Adult Correctional Institutions (ACI), arguing the Rhode Island Department of Corrections has failed to provide accommodations that are commonly available in other prison systems.

The legal action is the third such lawsuit the ACLU of Rhode Island says it has brought against the department in three years on the same broad issue: religious freedom for Native American prisoners. The ACLU says the complaint documents repeated, unsuccessful attempts by the plaintiffs to obtain accommodations, and argues Rhode Island’s system lacks any comprehensive policy framework for Native American religious practice.

The plaintiffs are seeking the ability to participate in religious ceremonies, obtain religious items, and access diets consistent with their beliefs. Advocates say these practices are not unusual in correctional settings across the country, and that comparable accommodations exist for other faith groups.

In its summary of the case, the ACLU of Rhode Island says the lawsuit argues corrections officials have “refused to accommodate an array of religious practices that Native Americans are routinely allowed to practice in federal and state prisons across the country.”

A Patch report on the lawsuit quoted the complaint as stating that prisons elsewhere have adopted policies allowing “pipe ceremonies, sweat lodge ceremonies, smudging ceremonies, drum circles, and powwows”, as well as items including “headbands, medicine bags, feathers, and dream catchers”. The complaint alleges that, by contrast, Rhode Island “has adopted no policies for accommodating Native American religious practices”.

The case has been filed in the District of Rhode Island, and is brought under the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act, a federal law that limits when states can substantially burden a prisoner’s exercise of religion.

The dispute sits within a broader pattern of litigation and advocacy in the US around religious rights in custody, with Native American prisoners and their supporters frequently arguing that cultural and spiritual practices are treated as optional or discretionary rather than protected religious exercise.