Judge: Accepting Jesus Christ As One's Personal Savior Cannot Be A Condition Of Parole

A West Virginia prison tried to force incarcerated man to enter a Christian substance abuse program.

It is difficult enough to kick a substance abuse problem, but it can be especially difficult if one happens to be agnostic or an atheist, given that at least two-thirds of treatment programs in the United States are religious in nature. Seven of the traditional 12 steps in Alcoholics Anonymous do involve God, and the The Big Book, the foundational text used by many, has a chapter about agnostics, suggesting that those who do not believe in God or are unsure of their belief in God are "handicapped by obstinacy, sensitiveness, and unreasoning prejudice,” as well as "doomed to alcoholic death." Very nice and very scientific!

Despite this, many corrections departments around America have long required participation in these programs as conditions of parole. But, thanks to one federal judge, West Virginia’s will no longer be among them.

Andrew Miller, an atheist inmate at Saint Mary’s Correctional Center in Pleasants County, West Virginia, had been serving a one-to-10 year non-determinative sentence after having been convicted of breaking and entering in 2021, which was not actually related to his previous substance abuse issues. In fact, Miller had been sober, thanks to secular treatment programs, for four years prior to his conviction.

Still the state wanted to require him to complete a state-run, federally funded and heavily Christian substance abuse program and attend AA and NA meetings in order to qualify for early parole. After having been denied three times by the state’s parole board, Miller decided to enlist the help of lawyers from American Atheists and Mountain State Justice to plead his case.

On Tuesday, US District Court Judge Joseph Goodwin of Charleston, West Virginia, determined that keeping Miller in prison until he agreed to accept Jesus Christ as his personal savior is religious coercion and a violation of his First Amendment rights.

Via AP:

In a sweeping 60-page decision issued Tuesday, Charleston-based U.S. District Court Judge Joseph Goodwin said Saint Marys Correctional Center inmate Andrew Miller “easily meets his threshold burden of showing an impingement on his rights.”

The state’s “unmitigated actions force Mr. Miller to choose between two distinct but equally irreparable injuries,” the judge wrote. He can either “submit to government coercion and engage in religious exercise at odds with his own beliefs,” or “remain incarcerated until at least April 2025.” […]

In his decision, Goodwin said although West Virginia’s “longstanding” program has never faced judicial scrutiny, other courts have found them to contain “such substantial religious components that governmentally compelled participation” violates the First Amendment.

“I have been provided with no evidence that West Virginia’s program is any less religious or less coercive than the programs invalidated in other jurisdictions,” Goodwin said. […]

“Although Mr. Miller has no entitlement to parole, the record strongly suggests that he would already have been released, but for maintaining his objections to an unconstitutional policy,” Goodwin said.

You think?

Some non-Christian or non-religious people or even atheists may be able to overlook the more religious aspects of some of these programs in order to benefit from them, and that’s fine — but it’s still entirely unacceptable that these programs are often required as a condition of parole and that even when they are not, incarcerated people are not even informed that they have the option of a secular treatment program. This is the case even in liberal New York, where Governor Kathy Hochul vetoed a law that would have required judges to inform drug court participants of this, on the grounds that it would have been annoying and inconvenient for the judges.

No one should have to stay in prison or continue a substance abuse problem because they don’t want to have to accept Jesus Christ as their personal savior or involve religion or superstition in their recovery in any respect. The fact that we haven’t worked to develop more varied programs is almost a sign of disrespect to people struggling with those issues.

Hopefully this will mean that no one in the West Virginia corrections system will have to be put through one of these programs in order to get out of prison in the future. Of course, we live in the United States of America and can likely expect a future lawsuit to claim that not allowing them to force people to convert to Christianity in order to leave prison is a violation of the DOC’s freedom of religion.