Mindfulness Training and Practice in Prisons

Hundreds of thousands of people are released from prisons every year.

Question: what has changed for these people, while they are in prison?
Answer: EVERYTHING; and much of it for the worse...
One Way to Help: Training and education for prisoners (and there is VERY little of this now available to the vast majority of state and federal prisoners). Upaya Zen Center in New Mexico offers training in mindfulness to prisoners. Here is a clip from their web site (see link under del.icio.us over to the left on main page of this blog):


"Mindfulness practices are effective ways to help prison residents deal with their feelings and develop “emotional intelligence” and self-regulation. Through these practices prison residents learn how to examine and eventually transform the unhealthy thought and behavioral habit patterns that have governed their lives. Out of these practices comes the ability to effectively manage the stress of prison chaos, the separation from family, and the anger that attends incarceration.

"Broadly speaking, mindfulness practice, including meditation, is a path to social change. Through an insightful practice one has the ability to change one’s own behavior, attitudes, beliefs, and resistance to change. Mindfulness practice enables one to be more in touch with feelings, without being driven or controlled by them. Crimes are often committed as an impulsive reaction to feelings. The awareness that one always has a choice as to how one reacts and deals with the circumstances at hand grows, and so, through greater clarity, one becomes more able to make clearer, more appropriate choices.

"Many people report that meditation is what keeps them feeling balanced and sane. It is a natural remedy for frustration and anxiety that is inherent in the scattered and fragmented lives that many prison residents have experienced. Meditation offers a way to transform this inner life, allowing one to be less fearful, less anxious, and less stressed. By creating conditions that encourage the development of compassion and wisdom, the focus shifts from the problem to the solution.

"Documented effects of meditation practice that result in decreased violence and conflict resolution include a significant reduction in inmate stress and anxiety, normalization of inmate sleep, and relief from depression (National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences, 1999). At the Western New Mexico Correctional Facility, where a meditation housing pod was established as a result of the efforts of the Upaya Prison Project, a deputy warden reported the following positive benefits: a reduction in misconduct reports and activity; a calmer atmosphere for both staff and inmates; a cleaner and more sanitized living environment; and improved communications between staff and inmates."