This reporting is made possible by the Northern Michigan Journalism Collaborative, led by Bridge Michigan and Interlochen Public Radio, and funded by Press Forward Northern Michigan.
Michigan Department of Corrections inmate Dylan Leenheer alleges his prisoner temporary ID was doctored to make it appear he was wearing stereotypical depictions of Native American garb. (Adam Miedema/WCMU News)
When Dylan Leenheer reported his Michigan prison identification card missing, he expected to receive a temporary replacement.
Instead, he said, he discovered his official prison photograph had been digitally altered to depict him wearing a feathered headdress, beaded necklace and buckskin clothing, with what appeared to be war paint on his face.
The altered identification card had been taped to the window of a correctional officer’s office where other incarcerated people could see it, Leenheer, a Match-E-Be-Nash-She-Wish Band of Pottawatomi tribal citizen, said.
“I was pretty shocked,” Leenheer said. “I couldn't believe it, honestly.”
“All allegations of discriminatory harassment are investigated by the department,” MDOC spokesperson Jenni Riehle said in an email to the Northern Michigan Journalism Collaborative. “Due to the ongoing litigation, the department declines to provide further comment.”
The alleged incident occurred May 13 at Newberry Correctional Facility and is now the subject of a federal lawsuit filed by Leenheer against Michigan Department of Corrections employees.
The department has not yet responded in court to the lawsuit.
Leenheer said he had lost his identification card the previous day and went to the officers’ office the following morning to request a temporary replacement. After breakfast, he said, several incarcerated people approached him and told him to look at what had been posted on the officers’ window.
He said he walked to the office and saw the altered identification card displayed for others to see.
Leenheer said he immediately removed the image from the window, filed a formal complaint, and requested body-camera footage.
Leenheer said approximately 160 incarcerated people in his housing unit could have seen the image showing him in racially stereotypical Native American clothing and markings. From what he gathered, it had been displayed for a couple of hours.
He said the incident did not end when the photograph was removed.
Other incarcerated people began making racial jokes and comments toward him, including asking whether he was going to his “teepee,” where his headdress and tomahawk were, and how many buffalo his family owned.
“It’s just a whole bunch of crazy s*** every single day,” he said.
Leenheer eventually asked prison administrators to move him from Newberry, saying the environment had become too hostile.
The lawsuit alleges the incident was part of a broader pattern of racial harassment.
“There’s a tendency … to say that because you're serving a prison sentence, you deserve what you get. It’s not a free-for-all.”MOIRA BATTERSBY | Dylan Leenheer's attorney
Moira Battersby, a senior attorney at Flood Law, based in Detroit and representing Leenheer, said her office has been told about two other incarcerated men who allegedly had their identification photographs altered using racial stereotypes.
One was a Black man, and the other was a man from India, Battersby said.
Leenheer said he personally spoke with both men and that they confirmed similar incidents had happened to them.
Battersby said her office has requested preservation of body-camera footage and files that could show how the image was created. She said the attorneys are also seeking information that could corroborate reports of other incidents.
“From what we presently know, it appears that it's a broader pattern,” Battersby said. “We know enough to know that this was really blatant and really brazen, but we don't know the full extent of it as of yet.”
Battersby said incarceration does not remove a person's basic human dignity or constitutional protections.
“There’s a tendency … to say that because you're serving a prison sentence, you deserve what you get,” Battersby said. “It’s not a free-for-all.”
Aaron T. Kinzel, a University of Michigan criminologist and Yale researcher who studies incarcerated Native people, said correctional institutions exercise significant control over how incarcerated people can express their identities and cultural practices.
He said the alleged alteration is particularly significant because of the power correctional officers have over incarcerated people.
“There’s definitely a power dynamic going on there,” Kinzel said. “You're creating an unsafe environment for this individual.”
He said publicly displaying an altered image could also put an incarcerated person at greater risk by encouraging other prisoners to ridicule or target them.
He said the allegations, if substantiated, should prompt accountability and a broader examination of how Native people are treated within correctional institutions.
“I think these officers should be fired at a bare minimum,” Kinzel said.
Battersby said the lawsuit is still developing. She expects MDOC to respond to the complaint and potentially seek dismissal of the case.
Leenheer, meanwhile, wants people outside Michigan's prison system to understand that the incident was not simply about an altered photograph.
“I’m just trying to bring awareness to the situation and to what’s really going on,” he said. “They’re trained; they know better … We’re already miserable. You don’t need to make us more miserable for your entertainment.”
This reporting is made possible by the Northern Michigan Journalism Collaborative, led by Bridge Michigan and Interlochen Public Radio, and funded by Press Forward Northern Michigan.
