Yoga and mindfulness inside a Level IV California state prison
From 2014 to 2015, I taught a weekly 90-minute yoga and mindfulness class at California State Prison, Sacramento, a Level IV facility near Folsom. The grant-funded program was offered through Yoga Seed Collective and used curriculum from James Fox’s Prison Yoga Project, with an emphasis on gentle movement, body awareness, mindfulness, de-escalation, and self-regulation.
Around 30 men participated each week. They chose to spend yard time practicing in a cold concrete gym with limited mats and props. What stood out to me was how engaged they were. They wanted to move, be challenged, laugh, and learn practices they could use beyond the class.
Some men told me they practiced in their cells. Others described using what they had learned during conflict, giving themselves enough space to pause, redirect, or respond differently. In an environment where so much of daily life was externally controlled, yoga offered practices they could carry with them to notice what was happening in their bodies and minds and find more choice in how they responded.
At a Glance
2014 to 2015
California State Prison, Sacramento, a Level IV facility
Weekly 90-minute yoga and mindfulness classes
Approximately 30 men each week
Grant-funded through Yoga Seed Collective
Curriculum from James Fox’s Prison Yoga Project
Prison Yoga Project curriculum used in the program.
Inside the Prison
One of the moments I remember most clearly was hearing a heavy door close behind me and realizing that I was inside until someone else let me out. I knew I would eventually leave, but the loss of control was immediate.
I sometimes thought about a narrow parallel with an ashram: daily life was highly structured. Meals, work, movement, and downtime happened within a rigid schedule. The difference was obvious. The men had not chosen that structure and had very little control over it. What stayed with me was the question of what someone could still do with their attention, their body, and their inner life within conditions they did not choose.
Yoga could not change the fact of incarceration. It could offer a way to notice what was happening in the body, stay present with difficult internal experiences, and sometimes find enough space to respond differently.
Closing Circle
At the end of each class, I invited everyone to sit in a circle and share one word for how they felt in their body. I heard words like calm, peaceful, clear, spacious, and at ease.
Those words stayed with me. I often wondered how often during the rest of the week the men would have said they felt good in their bodies. In a place where so much of daily life was constrained, the closing circle offered a moment to notice and name what was happening inside.
The conditions around them had not changed. For that moment, what had changed was how they felt in their own bodies.
Sharing the Work
In 2015, I spoke about the prison yoga program at Yoga Rx: The State of Yoga Therapeutics in Sacramento. The presentation gave me a chance to reflect on what I was seeing each week: men choosing the cold gym over yard time, practicing in their cells, using what they had learned when conflict arose, and leaving class describing themselves as calmer, clearer, and more at ease.
The experience changed how I thought about what makes a practice useful. Yoga did not need ideal conditions, a beautiful room, music, or many props to matter. What mattered was whether the practice offered something people could use in the life they were actually living.
Speaking about teaching yoga in prison at Yoga Rx in 2015.
What Stayed With Me
Teaching in prison changed how I thought about choice and what a practice can offer when so much of someone’s life is constrained.
The men had very little control over the larger structure of their lives, yet they could still notice what was happening in their bodies, work with what they were experiencing internally, and sometimes respond differently. The distinction between what could not be changed and what was still available to them stayed with me.
I also came away with a deeper respect for practices that are usable in real life. Yoga did not need to remove discomfort or change someone’s circumstances to matter. It could offer more awareness, steadiness, and room to choose within those circumstances.
That understanding continues to shape how I teach: paying attention to the conditions someone is actually living in and supporting greater awareness and choice in how they respond.
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