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“The literature seems to indicate this is worth doing,” said Rod Bowers, assistant chief jailer for the Shelby County Jail. “The benefits the classes could bring include inmates being better behaved, fewer disruptions, arguments and fights, and just day-to-day improvement with the management of the facility.”

Bowers said he didn’t know how much it would cost to institute the program at the men’s jail, but there would have to be long-term evidence that the meditation classes lower the rate of recidivism.

Crane said they decided to start the classes here after similar meditation classes at Donaldson Correctional Facility in Bessemer, Alabama, were shown to lower disruption and violence at the facility.

“We thought Memphis would be a perfect place to incorporate a meditation teaching in the prison system,” Crane said. “Memphis has a lot of people who have experienced trauma, and there’s a lower economic situation here, which causes a lot of people to end up incarcerated.”

Nebo said she hopes they can acquire more funding, so more inmates have the opportunity to release bottled-up emotions and stress.

“The more avenues of therapy, the better,” Nebo said. “We need to give [male and female offenders] as many options as possible if we’re really trying to … get to the root cause of their emotional problems or issues that cause them to do these crimes.”

In an article I published awhile back, “,” I wrote about the effectiveness that David Krassner, a staff psychiatrist at the California Men’s Colony State Prison, had when he implemented a meditation program.

Given the overwhelming evidence of the success of meditation, as a highly effective method for helping prisoners cope with negative feelings, like anger and stress, and realizing the possible cost saving for the correctional system, especially in this economy, I believe that it’s time to begin integrating meditation in our prison system on a large scale.