Episode 23: Why Yoga Might Fix our Criminal Justice Crisis with Bill Brown of the Prison Yoga Project
The Most Important Thing
Check out Bill’s work at the Prison Yoga Project and donate or volunteer if you feel called! Otherwise, check out the links below to familiarize yourself with the Criminal Justice crisis in the United States.
About Bill Brown
Bill Brown (C-IAYT) is the Executive Director for the Prison Yoga Project. He has brought yoga and mindfulness to San Diego County prisons and jails since 2013 at Federal, State, and County facilities. He is a contributing editor to the Yoga Service Council/Omega Institute’s recently published book Best Practices for Yoga in the Criminal Justice System.
He also maintains a private practice as a Phoenix Rising Yoga Therapy (PRYT) Practitioner and Group Facilitator, specializing in working with survivors of trauma
About Prison Yoga Project
Prison Yoga Project supports incarcerated people with trauma-informed yoga and mindfulness practices to promote rehabilitation, reduce recidivism, and improve public safety.
To support this mission, they:
- Provide trauma-informed yoga and mindfulness practices as a means of self-empowerment and self-rehabilitation
- Reduce the physical, mental, and emotional impacts and healthcare costs associated with stress and unresolved trauma
- Develop the self-awareness, self-worth, empathy, and compassion that leads to positive personal and pro-social choices
- Foster a more peaceful and humane incarceration environment for incarcerated people and staff
- Reduce the rate of recidivism among formerly incarcerated people
- Support the people we serve, and those who serve with us, in their ability to connect with their higher selves
- Publish and distribute educational materials (books, and audio/video programs) to support personal yoga and mindfulness practices
- Assist prisons, governmental agencies, private entities, and individuals in establishing trauma-informed yoga and mindfulness programs
- Provide training in the rationale, practicalities, and methodology for providing trauma-informed yoga and mindfulness programs
Episode Overview
The Criminal Justice system in the United States is broken. It has failed in its goals of keeping our communities safe. We have created a system of punitive, rather than restorative justice, which is why 76% of incarcerated individuals end up behind bars again within 5 years of release.
Today I spoke with Bill Brown about the Prison Yoga Project, who teach yoga to incarcerated individuals to train them to be better members of their communities (both within and outside of prison/jail). Where there are yoga programs, incidents of violence in prison housing (not just among the students) decreases.
Some Important Statistics & Favorite Quotes:
Quotes:
“I feel like I found the magic secret – you just put the focus on other people, and act with kindness, and really listen – and suddenly your whole experience of life changes… this is the gift that yoga ultimately brings.”
“To call awareness, to say what’s the emotional experience of being in the pose… this is what my experience is, your experience might be different.”
“Being able to see the divine in every aspect of what we meet in our experience.”
“Let’s forget about prison, these guys are there just having a different life experience. We’re all locked in a prison of our own making, trying to maintain some kind of identity we’ve created for ourselves.”
“What I see in yoga, is an anemic spirituality in the way that it’s approached in the Free World.”
Incarceration Statistics in the USA:
We spend $80.1B / year on our prison system, and we have a 76% re-arrest rate within the first five years.
California spends $64,000 per incarcerated individual per year compared to $11,500 per student per year on education
Meanwhile, 80% of men in federal and state prisons do not have a high school diploma. There is a direct correlation between education and likelihood of being convicted of a crime.
It is estimated that we would save $18.5B per year on prisons if the high school male graduation rate increased by a mere 5%
Jail has become de-facto psychiatric care provider in the United States. The 3 largest psychiatric care providers in the USA are the New York County Jail, Los Angeles County Jail, and Cooke County Jail in Chicago!
Prison Yoga Project has trained 3,000+ mental health and wellness professionals
Episode Breakdown
1:00 – Problems with American criminal justice system
6:00 – Defining jail v. prison
14:00 – The origins of punitive justice
18:00 – Bill’s experience teaching in jails & prisons since 2013
27:00 – Prison Yoga Project’s work
35:00 – Why yoga works!
40:00 – Stories from teaching solitary confinement
45:00 – What practices do they teach incarcerated individuals?
49:00 – Bill describes the Autonomic Nervous System: Sympathetic (Fight or Flight), Parasympathetic (digestion, normal breathing, etc)
55:00 – Further discussion on the power of yoga
1:08:00 – Shedding Identities and connecting with Self
1:15:00 – Being of Service
Episode Links:
Prison Yoga Project Instagram – beautiful photos of incarcerated individuals practicing
The Book of Joy, Dhali Lama & Desmond Tutu
Some important reports on prison statistics:
Defy Ventures Blog
Education & Correctional Populations, 2003
Van Jones, Meek Mill, Jay Z , and others created Reform Alliance which has Important Statistics
