For a number of years, yoga classes have been offered in prisons. The Lincoln County Jail is now offering classes for its short stay inmates. When the jail psychologist was challenged with recent budget cuts, he started the volunteer run program addressing stress, anxiety and trauma. KLCC’s Corinne Boyer has this story from the jail.
Eight women dressed in orange jumpsuits file into the jail’s library. Filing cabinets, tables and chairs have been moved along the walls to make room for yoga mats, blocks and towels. Tiny windows close to the ceiling allow some sunlight to enter the fluorescent-lit cinder block room. The women begin the class by spinal rocking. They move into mountain pose.”
“My name is Emiko. This is my fourth week of coming and it’s amazing. When I first came in, a lot of the girls were seasoned so I felt a little out of place, but the teacher is just amazingly patient and she walks us all through it. If there’s things going on outside of this room, it tends to stay at that door and it doesn’t come in here.”
Dennis Buckmaster is the Lincoln County Jail counselor. He says more than 60 percent of inmates have a mental disorder or mental issues caused by trauma.
Buckmaster: “When I first working here at the jail, I thought we need an exercise class, we need a yoga class, we need something. And I ran into Sally and I’m so glad that she said yes.”
Cheney: “I’m Sally Cheney. I've been teaching yoga for about 25 years. And I've taught many different populations from developmentally disabled, Down's syndrome, high school kids in drug rehab, the blind and a regular population of people.”
The 71 year old didn’t hesitate when asked to teach inmates.
Cheney: “It’s been really rewarding for me just because the feedback I get is so positive and I've notice that the inmates are anxious to have more things to do.”
“I’m Marcy.”
Boyer: “And how does yoga make you feel?”
Marcy: “All my tension goes, it’s good for my mind body and soul. I feel so much at peace out there when it’s really noisy. I think everybody should do it. And Sally is beautiful. When you walk in, you can feel her, you don’t even have to touch her.”
For many of the women this is their first yoga experience. Today they’re holding each pose for eight breaths. Paulette Bartley helps the inmates transition into warrior 1. She says a lot of women have issues when they arrive.
Bartley: “There’s a lot of people in the jails that have ADHD or fetal alcohol or any number of things that have happened to them that’s not their fault. And I can see that gradually as they do the yoga, those symptoms calm down.”
Recruiting volunteers was easier than getting the corrections staff on board. Buckmaster had to prove the yoga classes were beneficial so he counted up the number of incidents from arguments to fist fights. After the first class he saw a significant reduction.
Buckmaster: “The corrections officers that deal with them on a daily basis have seen a benefit in the behavior. The trauma doesn’t go away, but they’re learning how to manage it. They aren’t relying on something outside of them to do it. They’re learning from this class how to manage their body and their feelings.”
Marcy practices yoga one hour a day in her cell. She doesn’t like the way she feels if she skips a day. Marcy and Emiko plan to take classes when they leave the Lincoln County Jail. The women relax in corpse pose as the class comes to an end. Instructor Cheney says with yoga we can have a higher regard for ourselves and how we live our lives.