Religion and Drug Treatment

In our chapter on civic culture, we note that faith-based organizations have played a big part in rehabilitation programs for substance abuse. The courts, however, have ruled that Alcoholics Anonymous must not be the only therapy available to probationers because it is religious. The Sacramento Bee reports on a case in Redding, California, involving drug offender Barry A. Hazle, Jr.

As a condition of his release, Hazle was ordered to attend a 90-day, inpatient drug treatment program. He agreed to the program but even before his release told prison officials he wanted to be sent to a "treatment facility that did not contain religious components," federal court papers state. Instead, he was assigned to the Empire Recovery Center in Redding, a 12-step program pioneered by Alcoholics Anonymous and featuring a strong religious overtone, utilizing references to God and "a higher power." ...

[U.S. District Judge Garland E. Burrell, Jr.] found that Hazle's forced participation in the program ran "afoul of the prohibition against the state's favoring religion in general over non-religion" and violated the rights guaranteed him by the Constitution.