[Bouboumaster]

http://www.cyberpresse.ca/actualites/in ... prison.php

Sorry, I didn't found the article in english, but, shortly, it says that India have a new program of Yoga for prisonners. If they practice it for 3 months, if they fulfill some conditions and have a good attitude, they can go out 15 days earlier.

Following litterature class and earning degree permit them to go out earlier too.

Yoga is said to help reducing stress, temper attitude, giving a good shape, etc.



It depends of your view, I suppose, but I think it's a fantastic idea.
I would totally dig this kind of plan, where prisonners could learn either Yoga or Martial Arts, and gives privilege to the ones who choose to do studies too. I think that prison should be institutions not to only punish, but to be sure that the people who return in society have the tools to adjust themself inside it.

[andyt]

http://www.aquarianonline.com/Spirit/Vipassana.html

$1:

Vipassana Behind Bars

Last spring, out of the 1500-plus inmates at the W.E. Donaldson Correctional Facility in Bessemer, Alabama, 19 volunteered to take the second Vipassana meditation course ever to be offered in a North American maximum security prison...

At the North Rehabilitation Facility – a minimum security prison in Seattle, Washington – Vipassana courses have had such positive effects on recidivism (as they have in other countries) that the U.S. National Institutes of Health have funded a three-year study by researchers from the University of Washington. According to a progress report published at the Vipassana Meditation Website (http://www.dhamma.org), "preliminary results are impressive and seem to show radical and statistically significant changes in the inmates which have attended Vipassana courses versus a control group which has not."

Vipassana retreats are common in the Indian prison system.

Treating prisoners like animals while they are in just makes them more vicious when they get out.

[michaelhoffman]

An excellent move and confirms to the old wise saying "hate the crime and not the Criminal".
The ancient science of Yoga has miraculous effect not only on body but also spiritual awakening of an individual and enables a person to realise the presence of God within.

[Monkeyman]

I'm not sure if this idea would fly here, but theoretically it sounds nice.