Vipassana Meditation Courses In Prisons
Background and Courses in India
The teaching of Vipassana meditation in a correctional environment
was first tried in Jaipur, India in 1975. Despite three sucessful courses,
one for police officers and two for prisoners, no further prison courses
were taught for almost 15 years.
In March 1993, a woman named Kiran Bedi became Inspector General of the Tihar
Jail in New Delhi, the largest prison in India holding nearly 10,000 inmates.
In her search for a technique of rehabilitation which would not only prepare
her inmates for a sucessful return to society but also render the prison
environment more peaceful and harmonious, she learned about Vipassana and
its prior use in prisons. The first
10 day Vipassana course was taught within the Tihar Jail in 1994. Many
other courses followed for both men and women, including a
course for over 1,000 inmates, one of the largest courses ever held in modern
times. This course and the events which led up to it and followed it are
documented in the award-winning film "Doing Time, Doing
Vipassana". This film is currently being broadcast on a number of national
television networks around the world.
Today there is a permanent meditation center within the walls of Tihar
Jail, as well as several other Indian prisons, at which regular Vipassana
courses are conducted. In addition, 17
courses for thousands of police cadets have been held at the Police
Training College in New Delhi. Following the establishment of this technique
in the prisons of India, Vipassana courses have been sucessfully conducted
in the prison facilities of Taiwan as well as the United States. They are
also being currently considered by many other countries as a program to
try and stem the rising tide of recividism throughout the world.
Courses in the United States
Vipassana courses are currently being held in three U.S. correctional
facilities: the W.
E. Donaldson Correctional Facility, a level 6 maximum-security state
prison in Bessemer, Alabama, near Birmingham; the San Francisco Jail, which
was very successful; and the North
Rehabilitation Facility (N.R.F.) a minimum-security facility
of the King County jail system in Seattle, Washington. Lucia Meijer, the
administrator of N.R.F., has played a key role in introducing the courses
into North America prisons. After Ms. Meijer attended one of the 10 day
courses herself at the Northwest Vipassana Center, she and her staff overcame
the many administrative, security, and facilities hurdles to arrange the
first course for men in November 1997. Since that time additional courses
for both men and women have been conducted at N.R.F. with very positive
results. These courses were described in articles by the Associated Press
(AP) and by articles published by numerous major American newspapers, covered
in a radio interview
on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) and described in a program
presented on National Public Radio (NPR). In addition, Ms. Meijer is the
author of an article entitled "Vipassana
Meditation at the North Rehabilitation Facility" in the July/August 1999
issue of American Jails Magazine.
One of these courses, conducted for women inmates at N.R.F., is also
the subject of a recent documentary film entitled "Changing
From Inside" which is directed primarily to the questions and concerns
of administration and security staffs within correction facilities. Videotape
copies of this film are available to educational and correctional institutions
through the University
of California Extension Center for Media and Independent Learning and
a shortened and edited version of the film prepared and shown on Dutch
National Television is available in a
Real Video Clip.
Prison Course Requirements
The structure and organization of a 10 day Vipassana course in a prison
facility is essentially the same as that at a meditation center. The timetable,
meditation instructions, discourses and overall rules of conduct for the
participitants are virtually identical. Like other courses in this tradition,
there is no charge to either the participants or the facility for the course.
The facility need only provide food and housing for the inmates, as they
must do anyway, as well as the vipassana volunteers who conduct and manage
the course. A vegetarian menu is preferred, however that preference has
so far not been a significant problem in any of the courses. In addition,
a meditation hall or classroom and housing for the inmates participants
which is separate from all the other prisoners for the duration of the
course is required. Further information on is available
in the form of prison course fact sheet.
It is also required that one or more personnel from the correction facility
staff must take a 10 day course at one of the established meditation centers
before a course can be conducted at that facility. This is requirement
is necessary so that someone who has significant responsibility at the
institution and who is well known to the inmates who will participate in
the course fully understands the course and the reasons for the course
rules and regulations.
For Additional Information
Any prison or jail facility personnel or other person involved in corrections
activities is invited to contact this organization for additional information.
Both documentary information and a videotape presentation describing the
North American prison courses are available. Please see the Guidelines
for Vipassana Meditation Courses within Correctional Facilities for
more specific information. In North America, prison personnel can directly
contact Rick & Gair Crutcher in Seattle, Washington by fax (206-522-8295);
Harry & Vivian Snyder in San Francisco, California by fax (415-383-7739);
Thomas & Tina Crisman in Dallas, Texas by fax (214-855-4300); Bruce
Stewart by fax (413-625-6014) and Jonathan Crowley by fax (413-625-6779)
in Shelburne Falls, Massachusetts for further information about the North
American Vipassana prison course program.
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