Altered Bodies, Altered Minds: A Jail Meditation Program

Frances Dahlberg

Residents in a medium security, general-population wing of the Boulder (Colorado) County jail have been offered a weekly two-hour meditation program for the last four years. This program is voluntary for both teachers and participants. Six different instructors and approximately 500 prisoners have participated in the program. Teaching meditation in the jail gives a meditation instructor a most interesting visit with the states of mind experienced by jail residents. Hopefully, the program provides a useful tool for inmates with which they can achieve sleep, reduce tension, control impulses, and more effectively deal with pain, both physical and mental.

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