Warden Brad Adams issued a prison memo that required men at the all-male Northpoint Training Center in Kentucky to maintain “searchable hair,” according to USA Today.

“Braids, corn rolls [sic], dreadlocks etc. are not permitted if they are not searchable,” the memo stated.

If found in violation of the memo, prison officials would remove the hairstyle.

In a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Kentucky on behalf of 50-year-old Carlos Thurman, the Kentucky Department of Corrections removed Black hair care products from canteen shelves. The lawsuit also alleges that the warden infringed on his right to wear locs.

Thurman said that he and others in the prison were subjected to racial discrimination and violation of their First and Fourteenth Amendment rights.

The ACLU alleges that Thurman was transferred to another complex as retribution and prison officials proceeded to cut off his locs upon his arrival at the facility. The court affidavit further contends that remnants of Thurman’s hair were returned to him in a packed bag, Black Information Network reports.

“While my hair was being cut, NTC staff were laughing with each other while staring at me. Even after because of how my hair looked with the dreads cut. This was humiliating to say the least,” Thurman penned in his correspondence to Kentucky Department of Corrections Commissioner Cookie Crews, USA Today reports.

“Even though there is not an explicit racial discrimination claim in the complaint, I firmly believe that what happened to him is part of how prisons treat Black men differently,” Heather L. Gatnarek, staff attorney with the ACLU of Kentucky Foundation, said, according to USA Today.