This chapter speaks to the theoretical concerns that animate this project. It addresses a number of debates—both historical and contemporary—that set the stage for what follows in the rest of this book. It shows us why we should care about yoga and meditation in prisons, walking the reader through the broad sweep of commentaries that reveal the darker, more insidious possibilities that lurk...
This chapter illustrates the predominance of narratives about individual self-improvement in prisons, through an ethnography of a meditation class in an incarceration facility. It describes how the researcher becomes participant-observer in this class, shadowing the chaplain who conducts the class, practicing along with the students, and immersing themselves in the prison environment. This...