High rates of recidivism persist among incarcerated men, particularly those with extensive trauma histories, while many rehabilitation programs remain primarily cognitively focused. This systematic review synthesizes evidence on experiential psychotherapies, including mindfulness-based interventions, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), yoga, meditation, and creative arts therapies...
The benefits of mindfulness for general and at-risk populations have been documented. The aim of the present study was to consider how mindfulness affects prison inmates' wellbeing and relational competence and to investigate whether this relation varied as a function of their perceptions of the severity of the crime committed and the length of their punishment. Forty nine prison inmates (Mean...
Mindfulness intervention aims to reduce stress and to improve physical and mental health. The present study investigated feasibility and effectiveness of mindfulness intervention in a prison context, in both a qualitative and quantitative fashion. Specifically, the mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) intervention was investigated, in a retrospective pre-post design, in five Dutch prisons....
This study used participant/observation and open-ended interviews to understand how male participants (age 18-24 years) benefited from yoga and mindfulness training within an Alternative to Incarceration (ATI) program. Findings suggest that the male participants (age 18-24 years) benefited from the intervention through reductions in stress and improvements in emotion regulation. Several...
This article presents results from a systematic review and two meta-analyses that examine whether prison yoga and meditation programs are significantly related to increased psychological well-being and improvements in the behavioural functioning of prisoners. Comprehensive searches of the empirical literature were conducted up to December 2014. Participants who completed yoga or meditation...
By some estimates, more than half of inmates held in jails and prisons in the United States have a substance use disorder. Treatments involving the teaching of meditation and other contemplative practices have been developed for a variety of physical and mental disorders, including drug and alcohol addiction. At the same time, an expanding volunteer movement across the country has been bringing...
Positive criminology is a new term for a perspective associated with theories and models that relate to socially inclusive, positively experienced influences that assist individuals in desisting or refraining from criminal and deviant behavior. A qualitative phenomenological study of prisoners who were in recovery from substance dependency and who participated in a Vipassana course in a...
There is research that serves as evidence in favor of meditation-based programs as rehabilitative for incarcerated populations. This article reviews empirical research regarding the effects of meditation-based programs in correctional populations. Three meditation-based interventions have been shown to represent the majority of empirical research and are reviewed in this article: Transcendental...