Prison Mindfulness Institute

What is the Prison Mindfulness Institute?

The Prison Mindfulness Institute is an international, nonsectarian, contemplative support network (the Prison Dharma Network) for prisoners, prison volunteers, and corrections professionals that promotes paths of wakefulness and non-aggression as ideal vehicles for self-rehabilitation and personal transformation.

Mission of the institute?

The mission is to provide prisoners, prison staff, and prison volunteers with the most effective, evidence-based tools for rehabilitation, self-transformation, and personal & professional development. In particular, providing and promoting the use of proven effective mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs). The dual focus is on transforming individual lives as well as transforming the corrections system as a whole in order to mitigate its extremely destructive impact on families, communities and the overall social capital of our society.

Vision of the institute?

The vision is for correctional institutions and community corrections facilities and programs to serve as safe, humane and education-focused environments that genuinely support healing, rehabilitation, and personal transformation. The goal is to promote and support prison chapel programs providing faith-based approaches to mindfulness, meditation, and yoga from the world’s great contemplative traditions.

How does the institute promote research and rigor?

The institute promotes scientific research initiatives according to the highest academic and professional standards to measure the effectiveness of mindfulness practice and mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs) in corrections and to continuously improve the quality of their application and implementation in correctional programming. The aim is to make use of the proven-effective mindfulness meditation and body-mind awareness practices of the world's great contemplative traditions and the research-based integration of these traditional practices with contemporary psychology and modern therapeutic methodologies.

Path of Freedom

Path of Freedom from Go Project Films on Vimeo.