'Being' behind bars: The Transcendental Meditation Programme at Oregon State Penitentiary

Enlightenment - The Transcendental Meditation Magazine    Translate This Article
12 June 2011

Introducing Silence
'I feel happy and peaceful. I'm just smiling to myself. I know I am never gonna do drugs again. And another thing, I feel smarter. I don't want to be in any gang no more. Is that normal?' —Paul, an inmate at the Oregon State Penitentiary in the US, several weeks after learning the Transcendental Meditation Technique.

Nearly two years ago, silence and peace slipped into the high-stress environment of the Oregon State Penitentiary through an unexpected channel. In the fall of 2009, the Oregon Department of Corrections, in collaboration with Dr. Sanford Nidich at Maharishi University of Management began a randomized controlled study designed to investigate the effects of the Transcendental Meditation technique on high-risk inmates.

By the spring of 2011, 93 inmates and 16 correctional staff members, including a prison superintendent, chief medical officer, research manager, and prison chaplain, had learned the TM technique—and subjective reports from staff and inmates alike have been positive, promising, and poignant.

Earlier research at Walpole State Prison in Massachusetts, Folsom Prison in California, and other state correctional facilities had documented substantial reductions in violence and rules infractions among inmates who learned the Transcendental Meditation technique compared to controls—as well as a 33-43% reduction in recidivism, or rate of return to prison, after their release. (For a summary of earlier TM research in prisons, please click here.)

The Oregon study, which expands this earlier research, utilizes standard tests to measure the impact of TM practice on inmate psychological stress, criminal thinking, spiritual well-being, and symptoms of trauma. Ongoing phases of the study will follow the randomly assigned meditating and control participants post-release, so the Oregon project is still a few years away from completion. But according to staff and inmates alike, striking transformations have already taken place behind the prison walls.

''Where is the center of rehabilitation? Within the very nature of a person; it is all divine infinite, unbounded—a field of infinite correlation is there existing deep within him. The Transcendental Meditation technique enlivens it. The settled state of consciousness has a characteristic of infinite correlation, and once that is enlivened, the man can only be infinitely correlated with his environment. He can only be supportive and enriching to all of his environment. The word 'rehabilitation' should go to that extreme end—to the absolute awakening of the inner Being.''
— Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, First World Assembly on Law, Justice, and Rehabilitation, 1977, Seelisberg, Switzerland

Global Good News will continue featuring results of the Oregon prison study on Transcendental Meditation, and experiences of inmates who have learned the technique.

RELATED LINKS 

VIDEOS:
∙ Dominica Prison Takes Up Transcendental Meditation
∙ Foundation for Effective Rehabilitation—Dr Norman Rosenthal

∙ David Lynch Foundation prison programmes
∙ Can TM help fix our prison system?
∙ Inmates dive inward

© Copyright 2011 Maharishi Foundation USA

Global Good News comment:

For the good news about Maharishi's seven-point programme to create a healthy, happy, prosperous society, and a peaceful world, please visit: Global Financial Capital of New York.



Translation software is not perfect; however if you would like to try it, you can translate this page using:

(Google) Select a language English to Afrikaans English to Albanian English to Arabic English to Belarusian English to Bulgarian English to Catalan English to Chinese (Simplified) English to Chinese (Traditional) English to Croatian English to Czech English to Danish English to Dutch English to Estonian English to Filipino English to Finnish English to French English to Galician English to German English to Greek English to Hebrew English to Hindi English to Hungarian English to Icelandic English to Indonesian English to Irish English to Italian English to Japanese English to Korean English to Latvian English to Lithuanian English to Macedonian English to Malay English to Maltese English to Norwegian English to Persian English to Polish English to Portuguese English to Romanian English to Russian English to Serbian English to Slovak English to Slovenian English to Spanish English to Swahili English to Swedish English to Thai English to Turkish English to Ukrainian English to Vietnamese English to Welsh English to Yiddish

(Altavista babelfish) Select a languageEnglish to Chinese-simpEnglish to Chinese-tradEnglish to DutchEnglish to PortugueseEnglish to FrenchEnglish to GermanEnglish to GreekEnglish to ItalianEnglish to JapaneseEnglish to KoreanEnglish to RussianEnglish to Spanish