Unconventional Demands from Transgender Inmate in New Jersey

A groundbreaking case is unfolding in New Jersey’s corrections system. A transgender individual, previously known as Matthew but now identifying as Marina Volz, is requesting permission to conduct a naked Wiccan ritual in the yard of a women’s prison.

Volz, now 37, has spent the last 25 years at the Edna Mahan Correctional Facility for Women, serving time for serious offenses including human trafficking and producing child pornography involving her own daughter. This unusual demand has drawn attention, as it raises questions about religious rights and prison policies.

The situation escalated in 2023 when Volz filed a lawsuit against the prison, the New Jersey Department of Corrections, and the Director of Religious Services, Dr. Joy Lynch. In the suit, Volz alleges that she faced religious discrimination, claiming she was denied access to specific Wiccan items and the opportunity to observe her faith on important holy days.

Wicca, a pagan faith that surfaced in England back in the 1950s, includes practices associated with witchcraft, and its followers identify as witches. Volz states she has been trying to negotiate a settlement with the state’s attorney general’s office, reportedly submitting various requests for “religious accommodations.” This includes demands to perform rituals “sky clad,” a Wiccan term for being naked. Additional reports suggest Volz has also grown “sacred herbs” and created a “book of shadows” containing ritual instructions and symbols like a pentagram.

The requests do not end there. Volz has further claimed the right to marry Ashley Romero, a transgender individual who was previously an accomplice in a child sex abuse case. Together, they were convicted in 2022 for managing a pornographic production business that focused on controversial themes, alongside another individual, Sean Allen, who resided with them in Franklin, New Jersey.

The details of their case were alarming. Evidence showed Volz and Romero had relocated a 7-year-old child from her mother in Oregon to New Jersey. Video evidence revealed Romero engaging in sexual abuse of the child, prompting a strong statement from the judge, Peter Tobin, who described the actions as “heinous and cruel.”

Furthermore, a policy change in 2021 allowed transgender inmates to transfer to women’s prisons as part of a settlement from the American Civil Liberties Union with the New Jersey Department of Corrections, making this whole situation even more complex.