A federal judge in West Virginia ruled that the state’s corrections agency cannot force an atheist inmate to participate in a religiously-affiliated substance abuse program to be eligible for parole.

Charleston-based US district court judge Joseph Goodwin decided after Andrew Miller, an atheist and secular humanist imprisoned at the Saint Marys Correctional Center and Jail, filed a lawsuit against the West Virginian state government last April for allegedly forcing Christianity on incarcerated people and failing to accommodate his requests to honor his lack of belief in God.

I'd never tell someone not to use a program that's working for them, but Alcoholics Anonymous tragically uses a "higher power" model which insists that solutions must come from without and not within.

This robs people of their agency, and it distracts from real-world solutions. https://t.co/LsVNXwKb3Q

— The Thinking Atheist (@ThinkingAtheist) July 24, 2023

The lawsuit also said that Miller experienced “religious coercion” when he entered the correctional facility in June 2021. He is currently serving a one-to-ten-year prison sentence for breaking and entering. Although substance abuse was not a factor in his conviction, Miller was nonetheless enrolled in the program because he was recovering from addiction.

Judge Goodwin wrote that Miller’s case “easily meets his threshold burden of showing an impingement on his rights” and that West Virginia’s “unmitigated actions force Mr. Miller to choose between two distinct but equally irreparable injuries.”

He also added that Miller was forced to either “submit to government coercion and engage in religious exercise at odds with his own beliefs” or “remain incarcerated until at least April 2025.”

I believe it actually diminishes the achievement for the sufferer....that they were unable to do it on their own....

— Craig Topham (@TheSAJester) July 25, 2023

The district court judge also requested a preliminary injunction, requiring officials to remove completion of the state-run, federally-funded, residential substance abuse program from Miller’s requirements to be eligible for parole. The corrections agency did not comment regarding this decision.

In his complaint, Miller argued that the federally funded program for substance abuse in the facility, which he had to take for his parole eligibility, was “infused with Christian practices,” including Christian reading materials and mandated Alcoholics Anonymous or Narcotics Anonymous meetings, where the Serenity and the Lord’s Prayer are recited.

From @Wonkette: "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." https://t.co/sDUNZXDrue

— American Atheists (@AmericanAtheist) July 24, 2023

After just five days, Miller withdrew from the program because of its religious elements. According to his lawsuit, he already received secular treatment and remained sober for four years. A parole board panel interviewed Miller thrice and declined to grant him parole, often citing his failure to complete the state-mandated, religiously-affiliated substance abuse program.

Several substance abuse programs for inmates, such as Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous, were found to be religious-based because they often involve asking participants to turn their “lives over to the care of God” and encouraging prayer to maintain “conscious contact with God.”

Some foundational documents of these step-based and religious-affiliated substance abuse programs describe atheists and agnostics as “doomed to alcoholic death” unless they “seek Him,” characterizing non-believers as “handicapped by obstinacy, sensitiveness, and unreasoning prejudice.”

Thanks for your great work on this. This is one of the most egregious violations of the separation of church and state and nobody should remain imprissoned for refusing to participate in religious activities.

— BlackEyedGhost (@kuromenoyuurei) July 25, 2023

Judge Goodwin said that while West Virginia’s “longstanding” substance abuse program never faced scrutiny from courts, he said that “such substantial religious components that governmentally compelled participation” violate the US Constitution's First Amendment.

The litigation counsel for American Atheists, Geoffrey T Blackwell, who helped represent Miller along with nonprofit legal services organization Mountain State Justice, called the ruling “a complete vindication of Andrew’s rights under the law.”

“Without Andrew’s willingness to take on this fight, West Virginia would continue to unconstitutionally impose religion on people in its corrections system,” he added.

“No one should be forced to set aside their moral or religious creed as a precondition of their parole,” Lesley Nash, a lawyer working for Mountain State Justice, said regarding the decision.