The National Council on Crime and Delinquency (NCCD) performed a pilot exploration of five of the 19 classes offered by IPP at San Quentin. These classes, which at the time of NCCD's study made up the "core" of IPP programming, are the Victim Offender Education Group, Yoga, Violence Prevention, Emotional Literacy (focusing on cognitive behavioral rehabilitation), and Brothers' Keepers, a peer mentoring and crisis intervention training program. NCCD's project had two modes: qualitative, semi-structured individual interviews of class participants; and a quantitative survey of participants, which included some demographic information and several scales derived from published psychological measures. NCCD concluded that these course offerings represent promising rehabilitation tools that may lead to a reduction in recidivism. Prisoner interviewees consistently reported a high regard for the course content and course facilitators, and reported receiving a range of benefits from participation. Survey results suggested that participation in IPP may be associated with higher scores on cognitive behavioral measures, although further study is required.

 

Click here to read the complete NCCD Evaluation of the Insight Prison Project

 

Click here to read the complete article, Study Identifies S.Q. Groups Shown to Reduce Recidivism - Four Programs from the Insight Prison Project Offer Offenders a Transformative Experience.

We are excited to announce the addition of a new class to our yoga program! This new class was designed specifically for incarcerated military veterans with a focus on applying yoga for trauma-related issues, including PTSD. The veterans' class, which was started in January 2013, now has over 20 participants and is comprised of mostly life-sentenced prisoners. IPP Programs Director James Fox has incorporated Yoga Nidra as an important component to the class.

The veterans class is in collaboration with Veterans Healing Veterans from the Inside Out, a San Quentin program that was founded by a prisoner, Ron Self, a former decorated "special operations" Marine Corps Captain.

The class was recently highlighted in the Huffington Post. Click here to read the article "Yoga: Incarcerated Veterans Taking Healing Into Their Own Hands".

With addition of the veterans' yoga class, IPP now offers five yoga classes per week inside San Quentin State Prison. Insight Prison Project's innovative yoga curriculum provides insight, knowledge and tools to transform negative behavior patterns that led prisoners to prison into positive, productive behaviors that will sustain them while incarcerated and add to their chances of success upon release.

James Fox and Kathy Harris of IPP, in collaboration with Jacques Verduin of Insight Out, held a daylong mindfulness retreat and training at San Quentin in December 2012. Forty participants took a vow of silence during their seven hours together, which included periods of yoga asana practice, seated meditation and walking meditation. This daylong program, which was the second such daylong mindfulness event of the year at San Quentin, has greatly increased the demand and waiting lists for yoga programs at San Quentin.

Photo from New York Times Article

Insight Prison Project's Programs Director and resident yogi, James Fox, was featured in the New York Times!

The ancient art of yoga, a physical, spiritual and mental practice whose benefits have been promoted as improving relaxation, has found an unlikely home: prisons.

When many states have cut their wellness and education programs for inmates, citing cost and political pressure, some wardens looking for a low-cost, low-risk way for inmates to reflect on their crimes, improve their fitness and cope with the stress of overcrowded prison life are turning toward yoga.

Click here to read to read A Series of Poses for Fitness, Inside and Out

or send a check to:

Insight Prison Project
PO Box 151642
San Rafael, CA 94915

On behalf of the men, women and youth we serve, and the communities that are positively effected as a result, we thank you.