Last week the Supreme Court ruled that an Arkansas prison’s policy prohibiting most inmates from growing beards violated a Muslim inmate’s religious rights. Now, thanks to the high court’s decision to vacate a lower court’s ruling, Native Americans in Alabama may be able to keep their long hair in the future.
Native Americans fought the Alabama prison policy that bans long hair, claiming the prison system infringes upon their religious rights. The state’s Department of Corrections argues that inmates with long hair present health and security challenges, and the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit previously upheld the ban. The Supreme Court ordered the Eleventh Circuit to take another look at the Native American hair case in light of their decision in the beard case.
To date, 38 states permit long hair. According to a U.S. Commission on Civil Rights report from 2008, Native Americans constitute 3.8 percent of the federal prison population.
It is not certain that the Eleventh Circuit will side with Native American inmates. The beard case, for example, relied in part on the fact that it would be difficult for an inmate to hide contraband in a short, half-inch beard. The same may not be true about long hair.
Nevertheless, the Supreme Court’s decision to vacate the Eleventh Circuit’s decision is a small victory for Native Americans who have pushed for the long hair since 1993. According to the inmates involved in the case, dying with short hair can lead to “eternal consequences,” so long hair is a focal point of their religious beliefs. With the help of the ACLU, Native Americans in Alabama’s prison system won another religious lawsuit in 2007, which enabled them to conduct sacred sweat lodge ceremonies on holy days.