MADISON, Wis. — On a recent Tuesday afternoon behind the security check point and steel doors that restrict free movement inside the Dane County Jail, 11 female inmates assemble their yoga mats in a circle in the gymnasium.
Ranging in age from their early 20s to mid-30s, the women have found themselves sharing this time of their lives together for crimes stemming from cocaine and heroin use to fraud and forgery. Dressed in blue T-shirts and baggy pants — the jail uniform that closely resembles doctors scrubs — the women quickly grow silent, finding a place of calm amid the noise and chaos that many of them say has taken over their lives.
The stress management and relaxation class that incorporates basic yoga poses is offered every Tuesday to female inmates at the Dane County jail.
Linda Miles, 27, of Reedsburg, is among the female inmates in the circle during the Tuesday class. With her reddish-brown hair pulled back in a pony tail, she begins the class, along with the others, by inhaling as her arms stretch up to the ceiling, and then exhaling as she brings them back to her sides.
Miles joined the class in the beginning of November and has been coming ever since. She said she initially showed up simply to get out of what the female inmates refer to as "the room," an open space with bunk beds where 28 women spend most of their time.
The inner peace she found has kept her coming back to class. In jail for charges related to drug possession and manufacturing and delivery of heroin, Miles said the relaxation and balancing techniques taught in class give her "a different kind of high."
"It makes me feel more spiritual," Miles told The Capital Times (http://bit.ly/19d3zFt). "I started to realize I needed this more than I thought I did. Just being able to sit down, tune out all the noise and drama and concentrate on me... It really helps."
Now, she and Melissa Arvold, 24, of Dane County meditate and practice yoga stretches together.
Wensdae Rauls, 20, from Milwaukee, found herself transferred to the Dane County jail more than two months ago after breaking the terms of her probation for possession of cocaine.
The day she was transferred, a class was being held. Her feelings of sadness and depression initially led her to the class. The feeling of peace she feels now keeps her going back.
"It gives me a sense of peace . almost a way to escape the reality of your life for a moment" Rauls says.
She doesn't know when she'll get out of jail, but she says she plans to keep attending class until she does.
Yoga behind bars is becoming a bit of a trend nationally. The Prison Yoga Project, for example, has been highlighted by The Huffington Post, The Christian Science Monitor and The New York Times as a way to connect with offenders and teach them the calming benefits and mindfulness of the yoga practice.
The program is being used in the Denver Women's Correctional Facility, the Scott County Jail in Davenport, Iowa and numerous prisons in Maryland and the Southwest.
A recent story by the Texas Tribune highlights another program, Conviction Yoga, founded by Jim Freeman. Freeman is a lawyer turned yogi who is leading the yoga classes at the Texas Department of Criminal Justice's Powledge Unite in East Texas.
The program for female inmates in Dane County has been a quiet original, of sorts.
Originally started as a meditation class in 1999 by an educational psychology student attending UW-Madison, Ann Chavez, 62, got involved in 2000 when she was asked while raking leaves one day at the Deer Park Buddhist Center in Oregon if she'd be interested in taking over the class.
"I kept raking a little more then thought, 'Yes, I really want to do this,'" she said.
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