Hanas says he was indoctrinated with Pentecostalism. He was forced to attend worship services, read the Bible for hours a day and denied access to his attorney. He wasn't offered any actual drug rehabilitation; the program merely referred clients to another religious provider for rehab.

Hanas was in tight spot. He believed the program was violating his religious liberty rights, but if he failed to complete it, he would be incarcerated.

The matter ended up in court. A federal court ruled in Hanas' favor, and recently an appeals court agreed. The court called the violation of Hanas' rights "flagrant" and noted that the young man "faced incarceration if he were expelled for resisting [the pastor's] directives on how to worship."

The appeals court noted that there was a "symbiotic relationship" between the drug court that sentenced Hanas and Inner City Christian Outreach. This relationship occurred even though Inner City was clear about its religious affiliation. In a deposition, Dwight R. Rottiers, who ran the ministry, called it a "Christ-centered Bible teaching program. That's what we're all about. Anything other than that we do not allow in there."

We've been told repeatedly by members of the Bush administration that faith-based groups provide services cheaper and more effectively than secular providers. There is no evidence for this, of course. The faith-based boosters just say it over and over, assuming that if it is heard enough, it will be considered factual by most people.

Not only do faith-based groups have a lackluster track record of providing services, some of them, as this case shows, put conversion ahead of everything else. This particular group seems especially ill-suited to offer help to addicts. Its main goal is winning new converts and spreading its version of the Gospel. Yet it had a special relationship with the court.

Hanas had the wherewithal to get help from the American Civil Liberties Union and take the matter into court. One has to wonder how many other people simply put up with the preaching, knowing that their only other option was incarceration?

Substance abuse is a serious problem in America. Violating people's constitutional rights by forcing them into programs where they are subjected to religious coercion is not a serious response.