Atheist imprisoned for objecting to state-mandated religious rehab

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23536

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http://www.religionnews.com/2013/08/26/court-says-atheist-was-wrongly-jailed-over-religious-rehab/

SAN FRANCISCO (RNS) An atheist parolee should be compensated by California after the state returned him to prison for refusing to participate in a religiously-oriented rehabilitation program, a federal court ruled Friday (Aug. 23).

A three-judge panel of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously ruled that a lower court judge erred when he denied Barry A. Hazle Jr., a drug offender and an atheist, a new trial after a jury awarded him no damages.

In a move that could have wider implications, the appeals court also ordered a Sacramento district judge to consider preventing state officials from requiring parolees attend rehabilitation programs that are focused on God or a “higher power.”

Hazle was serving time for methamphetamine possession in 2007 when, as a condition of his parole, he was required to participate in a 12-step program that recognizes a higher power. Hazle, a life-long atheist and member of several secular humanist groups, informed his parole officer that he did not want to participate in the program and would prefer a secular-based program.

According to court documents, the parole officer informed Hazle the state offered no secular treatment alternatives. When Hazle entered the program but continued to object, he was arrested for violating his parole and returned to a state prison for an additional 100 days.

The story continues: http://www.religionnews.com/2013/08/26/court-says-atheist-was-wrongly-jailed-over-religious-rehab/
 
Separation of church and state do not exist... It is impossible. There is too many grey areas in too many different spots... Our government is crowded with religious values...

This further proves my point.
 
I'm really not surprised they're doing this. They've already been doing it by court ordering people to attend meetings. ( not to mention that idiotic "project prevention" bollocks. Paying addicts to undergo sterilisation? It's population control..

Quitting drugs only works if its a choice, they fail to see that.it all comes down to treating drugs as a moral issue
 
dopemegently said:
I'm really not surprised they're doing this. They've already been doing it by court ordering people to attend meetings. ( not to mention that idiotic "project prevention" bollocks. Paying addicts to undergo sterilisation? It's population control..

Quitting drugs only works if its a choice, they fail to see that.it all comes down to treating drugs as a moral issue
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Right, but drugs shouldn’t be a moral issue.

Project prevention was a miserable attempt.

It’s like they just don’t learn...
 
Yeah, to them it's a moral or criminal justice issue. I remember the shock ads telling me drug use will kill me if I even looked at them growing up, but where the hell was the rational drug education discussing safe use? (It may have changed since then though)
 
Jesus the stupidity! And they've got the audacity to get all shocked and outraged when young people wind up in hospital because they lack the education to use the gear safely (not to mention the fact that strictly forbidding something is likely to make people intrigued to try it)...

It's just one big vicious circle constantly repeating itself. I wish somebody would take a step back back in a while we need some perspective on this crap
 
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^This (originally meant for post before but this works).

The prisons set things up with what they do/what is most cost effective and considered "effective". Like any business has partnerships to minimize unnecessary complexity among other reasons, the system has its go-tos, I think.

The attention here though is needed. Restaurants are catering to gluten free lifestyles/necessities. Yada yada.

This won't stand for too much longer. Eventually those who lock us up will have to actually take responsibility, and cater to our needs. Not that I am an atheist... "our" being the individual they claim to know what is right and just for.
 
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You've got a point. The question of authorities providing for our needs is valid. the thing is though, we shouldn't be in a prison in the first place; we should have the right to make our own choices, without expecting the police to kick our doors in and drag us to a prison. We're not hurting anybody, and I find it fucking unacceptable.

And you know the government: if they did start providing for our needs, they'd only use it to gloat about their " progressive policies" towards us, giving the impression prison sentences for drug users is fair and morally justified (and I'm not including the violent drug users here)
 
Psychedelic Jay said:
Separation of church and state do not exist... It is impossible. There is too many grey areas in too many different spots... Our government is crowded with religious values...

This further proves my point.
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Depends where buddy, just north of you, my province of french canadians is about to adopt a chart of secularism...wait no, they changed the name to Quebec Values at the last minute so you might have a point 8) But yeah that charter will prevent all government employees from wearing religious clothing, objects or any other symbol. From doctors to judges to cops to employees of cities (fuck yeah, this will prevent from the mayor of my hometown to end his ear screeching catholic prayer before town hall has any semblance of a debate) and even to whatever is the name of women who help other women give birth at home in the US, they're paid by the gov here so...

I don't object to this...already we're having the muslix and the jews protest so they must be doing something right. It's slightly biased like I was hinting too though, small cross pendants are allowed and obviously they will not remove the crucifix from the National Assembly (I see you are from texas...so maybe you'll sympathize with this most likely new info...) The crucifix in the NA was installed in 1936 by our then God-Emperor like PM Duplessis as a victory over church and state separation partisans. We call it the National Assembly because Quebec is a secessionist province since almost the beginning and isn't also a signatory to the 1982 Constitution the then PM of Canada brought back from England, the second largest and richest province of Canada has always had a large political clout due to the way Canada's system is made, it's a confederation, so provinces have way more rights than your states could dream of and second, we're trying to seceed from the reat of .ca since the 70's, democratically...last time we failed was in 1995 and the vote for No to secession was a meager 50,4%... So our secessionist society is like texas but by at least 10-15 times more serious than down there. You never managed to create a federal third party thats very well aware it couldn't get a President in the white house, or in our case PM of Canada, but it was enough with about 49 seats and more to be able to disrupt anything that didn't give quebec more than other provinces (gotta take into context all the shit we were forced to swallow for 2 and a half centuries now, a little revenge like blocking anything the fed does if it doesn't benefit us was very little but satisfying nonetheless.


Heh, I've given a very passionate but full of thread derailing details here, but be nice, I haven't smoked our ridiculously strong .ca weed in 5 months and tonight I decided to take out to hot knives and call and old friend and smoke spots all night and it makes me wish I had never went to strong dope....(not psys....the freebase cocaine i'd make myself then of course the opiates when cocaine lost all attractiveness...also people dealing with cocaine are always so fucking shady...). Now at 41mg of done, will switch to sub on the 10th, but this weed when i'm not anxious is the best thing to channel a lot of my intellectual me who I had tried to destroy all these years because apparently being too smart for this society is dangerous for yourself and even others...
 
Is this was in the bible belt hed either have an exxorcism or be blaced in front of a firing squad. Really, can you imagine how much worse it would have been for him it wasnt cali?
 
Cornishman said:
What a fool.

He should of pretended to believe and gotten out of prison.
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Some people just can’t hide the deepness of there souls like that...

I know I can’t. Everything my judicial system goes by I damn near appose all of it.

Not the really bad shit, but simple shit like drug possesion? Come on...
 
'medicine cabinet' said:
Is this was in the bible belt hed either have an exxorcism or be blaced in front of a firing squad. Really, can you imagine how much worse it would have been for him it wasnt cali?
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um no prison is equally bad in cali. and they were the first ones to come up with mandatory minimums for drugs. gotta give credit where its due
 
I don't think he was referring to how bad prison was but how badly he would of been punished for rejecting faith based rehab programs in the bible belt if he copped this in California, if I had to guess I would guess California had a relatively high percentage of atheists for an American State.
 
Yea right on, no doubt prison is shit where ever you are, but if you tried arguing youre not going to rehab bc you dont believe in god in say kansas, i doubt there would be any kind of appeal process.
 
Psychedelic Jay said:
Separation of church and state do not exist... It is impossible. There is too many grey areas in too many different spots... Our government is crowded with religious values...
Click to expand...

Actually you might find in plenty of other countries than the US it does.
 
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