YOGA IN PRISONS how yoga and mindfulness benefit prison detainees

Why Prisons?

Prisoners in Australia – as is generally also accepted to be the case internationally – have greater physical and mental health needs than the general public. Overall, they tend to have higher levels of mental health problems, risky alcohol consumption, tobacco smoking, illicit drug use, chronic disease and communicable diseases than the general population, and their health is significantly poorer than in the general community. In one study the overall prevalence of any psychiatric illness was 80% for prisoners while only 31% for the community, with the contrast between prison and the community most pronounced for substance use disorder (66% vs. 18%).

This yoga in prisons research project, the first of its kind in Australia, aimed