Keep Bailing

One inmate spoke his mind so perfectly, “How do I find a way to go beyond these bars?” He describes that being is jail is a difficult enviornment in which to exist; with the constant clanking of jail cell doors being shut, inmates shouting and loud instructions coming through the intercom system.

Being locked in a jail cell can’t be easy. But a program initiated at Los Angeles County Men’s Central Jail , may offer many inmates a much needed ’metaphysical outlet’ by way of meditation classes, according to the Los Angeles Times.

A Buddhist Chaplain has been helping the inmates see a calmer, lighter sense of being through a popular weekly meditiation course being offered. So successful, it’s now in its third year and officials have commented on how it helps the inmates by keeping them calmer in this depressing environment.

In jail, inmates usually keep themselves racially segregated. When they come to class, they sit in their own groups. The Chaplain instructs them how to focus, how to breath and empty their minds. At a recent gathering, he asked them, “You’re probably thinking, ‘What am I doing here, what’s happening with my family, am I going to get big time at my sentencing… All of these things are gnawing away at you.”

The Sheriff’s Department allows the classes to be run by volunteers, which doesn’t create any additional burden on their budget. L.A. County Sheriff’s Captain, Daniel Cruz states, “They look within themselves… They’re not so easily excited or angered.”

Hopefully, meditation could be the ray of sunlight needed for the windmills of everyone’s mind.