Can Meditation Fix the Prison System?

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“The system is broken”, says Kevin Roper, who has been incarcerated for twenty one years. “You can’t change the system, but you can change the people inside it” and Kevin feels that the Transcendental Meditation (TM) program is the way to do it.

Other prison inmates say that the TM technique should be the first program for rehabilitation offered to new inmates, because “you need to change the brain first” in order to benefit from the counseling and other prison programs.

In his book, the Science of Being and Art of Living, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi writes: “many with potential talent are among those who are shut behind bars because of their misguided behavior”. One of the inmates at the Oregon State Correctional Institution explains it this way: “everybody is a good person inside, we just make bad choices”.

In this inspiring video, you will hear eight inmates explain, in their own words, how the TM technique has eliminated their depression, reduced their anger and the stress’ of prison life. Or as one prisoner said, meditation “frees your mind” and “takes me away from the prison completely”.

The TM program has been used successfully by prisoners and prison guards in countries like the United States, Senegal and the Netherlands Antilles. Prison studies show improved behavior and reduced stress and recidivism. A 2003 study at Walpole prison demonstrated that prisoners participating in the TM program were 33% less like to return to prison.

Studies in the maximum security prisons of Folsom and San Quentin found 35% to 50% less recidivism in the five years after prison release.

I think one of the prison inmates says it best. The TM program is “a tool for never coming back to a place like this”.

This TM blog article was written by Dr. Keith DeBoer http://AdventuresInTranscendentalMeditation.blogspot.com

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