Inside Pendleton Prison, Five New Yoga Teachers Are Ready to Give Back
https://youtu.be/trpKNp_dByE By Betsie Davis, PYP Operations Manager, Training and Yoga Facilitator One year. A few hours together every Friday, along with daily work in between classes. Six individuals came into this 200-hour Yoga Teacher Training not necessarily close. They left as their own community. They ranged in age from 29 to 50. They came from […]
A New Guide for Bringing Trauma-Informed Yoga Into More Communities
By Nicole Hellthaler, Executive Director and PYP Facilitator For decades, Prison Yoga Project has worked to make yoga and mindfulness accessible to people impacted by incarceration. Today, we are taking another step toward helping more people bring these practices into prisons, jails, and communities impacted by trauma. We are excited to announce the release of […]
It’s an Inside Job Tops the Reading List at Sweden’s Largest Prison
By Josefin Wikstrom, PYP Europe Program Director, Founder of Prison Yoga Project Scandinavia A book created with incarcerated participants at Kumla Prison has held the number-one spot for nearly six months, and its message has now reached Swedish national television. Editor’s Note: Earlier this year, we shared the story behind It’s an Inside Job, a […]
Build a Bridge. Shine a Light.
Bringing Yoga Into Every Stage of the Justice System The following reflection was written by Judge Dan Healy, a Superior Court judge in Solano County, California, and a longtime advocate for expanding therapeutic and healing-centered approaches within the criminal justice system. Dan has developed and presided over treatment courts focused on substance use, mental health, […]
Ten Weeks of Yoga, Lasting Change
Research from a women’s correctional facility reveals how trauma-informed yoga and mindfulness foster healing, belonging, and resilience. For more than 25 years, Paula Pierolivo Rodriguez has worked alongside communities impacted by trauma, violence, and marginalization around the world. A bilingual advocate, yoga and mindfulness teacher, and longtime volunteer, Paula has spent the past three years […]
The Questions I Still Carry About My Uncle Brian
The following reflection was written by Prison Yoga Project Board Member Lindsey Athanasiou. At Prison Yoga Project, we often share stories that help illuminate the humanity of people impacted by incarceration and the experiences that inspire our commitment to this work. We are deeply grateful to Lindsey for sharing the story of her Uncle Brian—a […]
Three Hours to Cleveland
What makes a program last inside a correctional facility? It’s not just funding, or curriculum, or even outcomes—though all of those matter. It’s relationships. The kind built over time between facilitators and participants, between organizations and staff, between people who may stand on different sides of the system but share a belief that something better […]
Returning to Joy: Youth Yoga at Pulaski County Juvenile Detention Center
With support from the Arkansas Black Hall of Fame, Prison Yoga Project recently restarted our youth yoga program at Pulaski County Juvenile Detention Center. Over five months, we provided 20 trauma-informed yoga and mindfulness sessions, reaching 41 young people. Alongside movement and breathwork, youth engaged with This Time I Choose: Daring to Find a New Way […]
Full Circle: Welcoming Darnell “Moe” Washington to the PYP Board
With heartfelt gratitude and great enthusiasm, I’m honored to share that Darnell “Moe” Washington—a former participant in yoga programming at San Quentin—is Prison Yoga Project’s newest board member. Why is this so meaningful? Because Moe embodies the transformation we hope for all those who practice yoga in prison—to become their full selves, to care deeply […]