Yoga Behind Bars: A Fresh Look at Healing and Rebuilding Lives

Prisons are tough places. People inside often deal with a lot of stress, trauma, and feel left out. Yoga has been brought in to help. But does it really work? A recent review looked at studies to see if yoga can make a difference. The review checked out 10 studies with over 1, 800 people. These studies used different types of yoga, like Hatha and trauma-informed practices. The results were mixed but promising. Yoga seemed to help reduce stress, anger, and trauma symptoms. It also improved mood and self-control.For women and girls, the studies were fewer but showed good results. Yoga helped reduce post-traumatic stress, depression, and anxiety. It also increased self-compassion. One big study even found that people who did yoga were less likely to end up back in prison. But there are some problems. The studies were small and used different methods. This makes it hard to say for sure if yoga works. More research is needed to be certain. So, yoga might be a good addition to prison programs. But we need better and bigger studies to know for sure. It's a start, but there's still a lot to learn.