{"id":2710,"date":"2010-11-12T12:12:35","date_gmt":"2010-11-12T17:12:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tm.org\/blog\/?p=2710"},"modified":"2018-02-09T11:40:45","modified_gmt":"2018-02-09T17:40:45","slug":"transcendental-meditation-fix-prisons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usa.tm.org\/blog\/people\/transcendental-meditation-fix-prisons\/","title":{"rendered":"Can TM help fix our prison system?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft\" title=\"can-transcendental-meditation-fix-prisons\" src=\"https:\/\/www.tm.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/can-transcendental-meditation-fix-prisons.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"160\" height=\"160\" \/>\u201cThe system is broken,\u201d says Kevin Roper, who has been incarcerated for twenty-one years. \u201cYou can\u2019t change the system, but you can change the people inside it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>A growing number of prison inmates and staff are finding that the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tm.org\">Transcendental Meditation program<\/a> is the way to do it. In this video, eight meditating inmates explain how the TM technique has significantly changed their health and well-being, reducing anxiety, depression, anger, and the overall stress of dealing with prison life.<\/p>\n<p><object width=\"560\" height=\"340\"><param name=\"movie\" value=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/v\/z97bWkObdkU?fs=1&amp;hl=en_US&amp;rel=0&amp;showinfo=0\" \/><param name=\"allowFullScreen\" value=\"true\" \/><param name=\"allowscriptaccess\" value=\"always\" \/><embed src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/v\/z97bWkObdkU?fs=1&amp;hl=en_US&amp;rel=0&amp;showinfo=0\" type=\"application\/x-shockwave-flash\" allowscriptaccess=\"always\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\" width=\"560\" height=\"340\" \/><\/object><\/p>\n<p>These prison inmates, administrators, and guards say that the Transcendental Meditation technique provides a needed foundation for the rehabilitation offered to new inmates, because \u201cyou need to change the brain first\u201d in order to benefit from the counseling and other prison programs.<\/p>\n<p>In his book, <em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Science-Being-Art-Living Transcendental\/dp\/0452282667\/ref=sr_1_1?s=gateway&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1285879754&amp;sr=8-1\">The Science of Being and Art of Living<\/a><\/em>, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, the founder of the Transcendental Meditation program, writes: \u201cMany with potential talent are among those who are shut behind bars because of their misguided behavior.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In the recent video interview posted above, a meditating inmate in an Oregon prison explains it this way: \u201cEverybody is a good person inside\u2014we just make bad choices.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Transcendental Meditation program has been introduced into prison rehabilitation programs in a number of countries, most recently in the prisons of the Caribbean nation of Dominica. Prison studies show improved behavior and reduced stress and recidivism.<\/p>\n<p>A study published in 2003 in the <em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.informaworld.com\/smpp\/content~db=all~content=a903853124\">Journal of Offender Rehabilitation<\/a><\/em> found that inmates at a maximum security prison in Walpole, Massachusetts, demonstrated that prisoners participating in the TM program were 33% less likely to return to prison. Studies in the Folsom and San Quentin prisons in California also found 35-50% less recidivism after prison release.<\/p>\n<p>But I think one of the prison inmates says it best. The Transcendental Meditation program is \u201ca tool for never coming back to a place like this.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.tm.org\/contact-us\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.tm.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/05\/Contact-us-button-TM-blog.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/><\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cThe system is broken,\u201d says Kevin Roper, who has been incarcerated for twenty-one years. \u201cYou can\u2019t change the system, but you can change the people inside it.\u201d A growing number of prison inmates and staff are finding that the Transcendental Meditation program is the way to do it. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tm.org\/blog\/people\/transcendental-meditation-fix-prisons\">See video post<\/a><\/p>\n<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on the_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on the_excerpt -->","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2710","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-people"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usa.tm.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2710","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usa.tm.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usa.tm.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usa.tm.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usa.tm.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2710"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/usa.tm.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2710\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14185,"href":"https:\/\/usa.tm.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2710\/revisions\/14185"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usa.tm.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2710"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usa.tm.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2710"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usa.tm.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2710"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}