108 Sun Salutes for 108 days

Becoming a prisoner could have happened to any one of us... But, if you were raised in a comfortable environment, with a family that loved and cared for you and supported you, if you had access to a good education and under went all of the life stages that provided a stable beginning; if you were nurtured and invested in as you were growing up - then your chances of ending up in prison are more than halved.

People see prisoners as bad people, deserving of the justice they are serving, lock 'em up and throw away the key! But when you look at some of the life stories these people have - you soon come to realise that circumstance has lead them to be where they are today - and circumstance can happen completely outside of that persons control... no wonder they have come to this point in time, if you look at the bigger picture - We (as in, those who have not served time in prison) are often nothing more than lucky that the circumstances surrounding our lives are different.

Some of you may or may not know that over the past year I have been volunteering for the YEPT as a guide to prisoners undertaking the 6 month "Freedom Project" correspondence course.

In this year, I have received hundreds of letters from prisoners across the country who have been practicing Yoga in their cells and with fellow inmates whilst they work through the course material - and I have seen the impact it has had on each and every one of them, turning them into more mindful, compassionate and self-aware individuals and giving them the tools to negotiate their way through their past pains and present circumstances.

When I say Yoga is more powerful that I had ever realised possible until I began undertaking this work, I mean it... There have been instances where gang members are holding Yoga classes with their inmates in their prison units and inspiring each other to treat each other with more empathy and kindness....

I have received comments from inmates that entire prison units that are undertaking the course are calmer, more introspective and less aggressive than before to the point that the prison guards have commented on the differences they are seeing and providing mats to the inmates to encourage them to continue with these studies.

What I have also learned is how expensive it is to fund this course material - when you add up the postage and packaging, the printing, binding, services for every single module being sent out to prisoners across New Zealand - it makes for a large monthly bill.

At the moment we are having to hold back applications because we simply cannot afford to cover the costs of the course material to provide the course for all that that are writing to us applying to enroll..

The Freedom Project course is so valuable it is priceless... it is giving these members of our society the tools to return to our communities as better people, which isn't that ultimately what we all want in the end?