An appellate court recently ruled in favor of a prison inmate who was denied early parole, effectively speaking, for being an atheist:

Atheist Randall Jackson had been serving time in the Western Reception, Diagnostic and Correctional Center in St. Joseph, Missouri when he learned about an opportunity to get early release on parole — all he had to do was attend the center’s “Offenders Under Treatment Program.”

Just one problem: The program was faith-based, requiring him to both pray and acknowledge the existence of God. (Another treatment program promoted Alcoholics Anonymous which is also religious in nature.)

He explained his misgivings to prison staff, and was allegedly told to pretend that “God” stood for “good orderly direction.” I think I’ve heard that one before.

This prison inmate, however, had some scruples.

Jackson eventually asked to be transferred to a secular treatment program — but his request was denied. Instead of lying and playing the game, he chose not to enroll in OUTP… and was later denied an early release.

(Emphasis added.)

This seems pretty self-evidently unconstitutional. Here we have a benefit offered to inmates, early release, conditioned on completion of a program that is pretty explicitly religious. (It’s probably safe to assume that it is Christian in nature.) The inmate in question here is an atheist, but one could substitute any non-Christian religion—or even different flavors of Christianity—and the problem presents itself even more clearly.

Jackson sued, but lost in the trial court. He appealed to the Eight Circuit: Continue reading →