Healing on the Inside: The Power of Yoga in Prisons

Original article written by Juliette Ambrogi

It is well documented that yoga reduces various forms of stresses in people. Yoga improves the regulation of the sympathetic nervous system and hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal system (Pascoe et al., 2017) and is often recommended by doctors as a therapeutic lifestyle (Smith & Frates, 2018).

While most research has focused on the general population, a growing number of studies explore how yoga benefits people who are incarcerated. Early findings are promising. For example, a 10-week study showed a significant reduction in anxiety, depression, interpersonal sensitivity, hostility, psychoticism, and paranoid ideation in those who were incarcerated (Sfendla et al., 2018). Another study on incarcerated women showed that yoga can be administered in the prison setting daily to maintain prisoners’ mental health (Sathiyavathi et al., 2024). And other studies show statistically significant reduction in aggression scores among juvenile in Colombia (Quiñones et al., 2025) and improved sleep quality (Habibzadeh et al., 2024). Increasing numbers of studies show positive effects of yoga in prisoner quality of life.

These benefits are particularly meaningful given the realities of prison environments. Prison environments are loud, chaotic, and under resourced (Shen 2024). It is common that people who are incarcerated have experienced significant trauma in their lifetimes and enter the prison system with low literacy rates and personal skills. Low literacy rates and personal skills become a barrier to inmates receiving health care, limiting their ability to actively engage in their own healthcare (Maeve and Vaughn 2021). Additionally, seeking mental health treatment among prisoners is commonly associated with stigma or shame (Edge et al., 2020). Prison environments do not naturally foster an accessible path to mental health. Against this backdrop, yoga emerges as an accessible, low-cost, and non-stigmatizing tool for supporting mental health.

Although prisons are institutions created for punishment, prisoner health is intricately linked to human rights (WHO, 2014). Yoga is a thousands-year-old practice rooted in the breath, though Western culture often portrays it as a luxury reserved for a select demographic. It is a practice that strips away external distractions, guiding practitioners inward to notice and regulate their sensations, emotions, and thoughts. Thus, leading to greater self awareness, self regulation, self growth, and ultimately leading to transformation.

When prisons integrate yoga into their programs, they don’t just reduce conflict, they uphold the human right to health and dignity, while creating the conditions for healing, rehabilitation, and the possibility of a life rebuilt.

Sources:

Edge et al., 2020 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33015596/

Habibzadeh et al., 2024 https://jrh.gmu.ac.ir/browse.php?a_id=2437&slc_lang=en&sid=1&ftxt=1&html=1

Maeve and Vaughn, 2021 https://prisonreformtrust.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/January-2023-Bromley-Briefings.pdf

Pascoe et al., 2017 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0306453017300409

Sathiyavathi et al., 2024 https://journals.lww.com/joacs/fulltext/2024/12010/effect_of_yoga_on_psychological_and_emotion.4.aspx

Sfendla et al., 2018 https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychiatry/articles/10.3389/fpsyt.2018.00407/full

Shen 2024 https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/00220183241265170#fn1-00220183241265170

Smith & Frates, 2018 https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6993095/#:~:text=For%20students%20who%20are%20seeking,African%20American%20breast%20cancer%20survivors.

Quiñones et al., 2025 https://ijyt.kglmeridian.com/view/journals/ijyt/35/2025/article-Article6.xml

WHO 2014 iris.who.int/bitstream/handle/10665/128603/9789289050593-eng.pdf?isAllowed=y%26sequence%3D3