Atheist Sent To Jail For Rejecting God, In Blatant Violation Of The Constitution

[Big Blue Sky]

-The Constitution doesn’t apply, apparently, when it comes to atheists. Barry Hazle, an avowed atheist from California, has had his parole revoked, and you’ll balk at why. According to Courthouse News Service, Hazle rightfully sued his parole officer, several corrections officials with the state of California, and Westcare Corp. for revoking his parole after his “congenial” refusal to acknowledge a higher power in a required 12- Step Program.

-Hazle said that he had already expressed discomfort with participating in religiously based drug treatment programs after a plea of “no contest” to a methamphetamine possession charge. Despite the fact that everyone involved knew he was was an atheist, Hazle was released from prison into a 90-day treatment facility, where all of the programs available followed the 12 step method, which requires the acknowledgment of a higher power. When Hazle refused to participate, the staff reported him to his parole officer, and he went back to prison for 100 days.

-Hazle filed a efderal civil rights suit seeking damages for false imprisonment and other civil rights violations. San Francisco U.S. District Judge Garland Burrell found the defendants in Hazle’s case liable for civil rights violations. However, when he turned the case over to a jury, they awarded Hazle zero damages.

Hazle appealed for a new trial, and was denied. Finally, a three- judge panel of the 9th Circuit found that Hazle was entitled to damages in his civil rights suit. From Judge Stephen Reinhardt:

The district judge’s finding of liability establishes that Hazle suffered actual injury when he was unconstitutionally incarcerated. Given this undisputed finding that Hazle’s constitutional rights were violated, and applying the rule that the award of compensatory damages is mandatory when the existence of actual injury is beyond dispute, we hold that the district judge erred in refusing to hold that Hazle was, as a matter of law, entitled to compensatory damages. We therefore reverse the district judge’s denial of Hazle’s motion for a new trial.

Read: http://www.addictinginfo.org/2013/08/27/...stitution/

[pocaracas]

Atheist guy gets out of prison under the sole excuse of enrolling on a detox program.... finds out that all detox programs use religion.... he gets put back in prison.
I see nothing wrong... maybe I understood it wrong...

[Doubting Thomas]

This has been going on for years. So many court-ordered detox programs, especially AA, require the participant to acknowledge a "higher power."

AA also has an amazingly high failure rate.

[Esquilax]

Atheist guy gets out of prison under the sole excuse of enrolling on a detox program.... finds out that all detox programs use religion.... he gets put back in prison.
I see nothing wrong... maybe I understood it wrong...

Well, it was my understanding that the guy went to his program- was in fact pulled out of a meeting by police when he was put back in jail- and that his parole violation was merely requesting that he be allowed entry into a secular detox program instead.

Which is... you know, wrong.

[LastPoet]

If he was playing an out-of-jail card with this thing, he should've just acknowledge the higher power to the fool asking for it. Better chances of success, and there is no atheist dogma that says we should always tell the truth

[Minimalist]

finds out that all detox programs use religion

Probably explains their high failure rate.

Even the most ardent true believers who will be honest about it recognize that A.A. and N.A. have at least 90% failure rates. And the real numbers are more like 95% or 98% or 100% failure rates. It depends on who is doing the counting, how they are counting, and what they are counting or measuring.

http://www.orange-papers.org/orange-effectiveness.html

[CleanShavenJesus]

Come on. The least he could've done is pretended to believe in Greek mythology.

[Silver]

I also would not have surrendered to acknowledging a higher power.

It was not as though he could have asked for a secular twelve step program, because his attorney most likely informed him to simply go along with whatever was offered in the beginning to appear more compliant. Pathetic, really, but that is how the imperfect justice system operates.

[Walking Void]

They should rename the Justice System to Judgement System.

[Doubting Thomas]

Part of the problem with AA, as I understand it, is that they tell their members that they're too weak to become sober, they'll always be alcoholics, and so they'll always need AA. I don't know if it's just so they can keep their numbers up, or like any other treatment group, simply replace their drug of choice with God.