Atheist inmate settles for $1.95 million over 12-step drug rehab that included prayer

[Auggie]

San Francisco Chronicle / 10-14-14

Barry Hazle was paroled after a one-year prison term for methamphetamine possession in 2007 and was ordered to spend the next 90 days in a residential drug treatment program. When he arrived, officials told him it was a 12-step program, modeled on Alcoholics Anonymous, that required participants to confess their powerlessness and submit to a “higher power” through prayer.

Hazle, a lifelong atheist, had asked for a secular treatment program. He said he was told this was the only state-approved facility in Shasta County, where he lived, but that it wasn’t a stickler for compliance.

“They told me, 'Anything can be your higher power. Fake it till you make it,’” he recalled.

Hazle refused and was declared in violation of parole and sent back to prison for 100 days. Seven years and two federal court rulings later, he and his lawyers announced a $1.95 million settlement Tuesday of a suit against the state and its contractor, WestCare California, for wrongful incarceration in violation of his religious liberty.

MORE: http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Atheist-inmate-settles-for-1-95-million-over-5822767.php

Furthermore: Federal judge ruled in 2010 the state had violated Hazle’s rights by revoking his parole and returning him to prison ... jury declined to award damages ... last year the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said Hazle was entitled to some financial compensation and ordered a retrial ... court also said WestCare was potentially liable for referring Hazle to a religiously based program ... all claims were resolved in the settlement.

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This never should have gotten this far. As a taxpayer I'm pissed to be losing this money, but as an atheist I'm happy Hazle's rights were eventually acknowledged and that he received some kind of compensation for his extra incarceration.

Would this have happened had it been state-run rehab?

[edgineered]

1. A friend took the fake it route -

“They told me, 'Anything can be your higher power. Fake it till you make it,’” he recalled.

Bill was ordered into the AA program, he decided he would become the poster boy for it.

Near the end of his involved me he was arrested. He had told his doctor that he had 2 beers, thinking that doctor-patient confidentiality existed. It does not when one is in an AA program. I can't remember the resulting jail sentence, he owns a business so it was a weekend thing and staying home at night.

DO NOT EVER agree to an AA or AA type program regardless of being an atheist or a theist.

[onager]

2. I'll second that.

Many years ago, when I was younger and (maybe) dumber, I got a DUI in Los Angeles County. Part of the sentence was 12 AA meetings.

I DON'T CARE WHAT THEY SAY ABOUT "YOUR HIGHER POWER CAN BE ANYTHING," THEY FUCKING LIE! It was full-court, balls to the wall Jesus all the time. The same little clique of Bible-thumping drama-queens and attention-whores (of both genders) kept seizing the podium to humble-brag about their sobriety.

After Meeting #1, I already had enough and asked if there was a secular meeting. One of the women present said: "No. I heard there used to be a secular group in North Hollywood, but they were like devil-worshippers and stuff."

Good grief. I was actually told that. In Los Angeles. In the (then) 20th century.

I just served my time and got done with it. Finally did smoke out another non-believer, so we could quietly support each other via eye-rolling and other non-verbal insubordination. Nice guy, who got a DUI when the cop asked him to get off his Harley and he managed to fall down and pull it on top of himself. Even he thought that was funny.

[Warren Stupidity]

4. I'm wondering if you are going to play all nice and everything in here and just restrict

your attacks on the people who post here regularly to that other forum?

And if so, what exactly is up with that?

[edgineered]

5. What is up with that? I'll answer.

In my reply to the OP, another poster made a statement regarding presumption of motivation in others. I asked if a more direct statement should be made, and was told, 'you should'. Hence inviting an attack from a defensive position, a mental and verbal exercise ensued. A game, a chess match if you will. I can be many things and function in many arenas, not taking mere words or expressions of feelings as personal vendettas, nor delivering them with such intent. I have no enemies, there is no one I hate, there is no one I dislike. There are people I avoid.

But still another question?

[Warren Stupidity]

3. dupe!

nah just kidding

[AlbertCat]

6. I got caught speeding with a roach in the ash ashtray

But since the cop didn't "smell" anything (his reason for searching the car) until after he was returning my license and reg, and because I obviously wasn't under the influence of anything (I hadn't smoked) I got off easy.

I was sent to 15 NA meetings. I was to right a little essay after each meeting telling what I learned.

This was cruel and unusual punishment!

What I learn was NA is a religious cult. I leaned some folks are hooked on NA meetings. I learned the churches charged the group rent for the rooms they used. I learned only one group (I went to several different ones) was racially mixed. I learned the meetings were big pity parties with no professionals to guide or inform the people there. I learned the young ones were particularly hostile and mean.

I learned, were I a narcotics abuser, NA would be useless.

My lawyer told me my essays would not please the judge. I said "they didn't tell me to please the judge." But there was no way I was doing it again. I started screaming into the phone that the state had sent me to a religious cult full of narcotic users because of a roach..... My lawyer cut me off and told me to write one little essay and not to be harsh. I did. That was the end of it.