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Juvenile Offenders Use Yoga To Straighten Out
ABC7 Focus on Solution
By Kristen Sze
Watch the Video Or Read the Transcript Below…
Oct. 19 – The ancient art of yoga is a hot trend. Many people do it for better posture, health, and mental well-being. But did you know prisons are now turning to yoga to help set criminals on a straight path? In this ABC7 Solution, we look at an innovative program for young offenders in San Mateo County.
The students in this yoga class are not paying hundreds of dollars, wearing fancy workout clothes, or striving for the perfect body. They are learning self-awareness.
This class is offered at Camp Glenwood in La Honda. It’s a live-in therapeutic program for kids between 13 and 18 years old who have committed crimes ranging from stealing to fighting. (We’re not showing the faces of current participants.)
Manuel, 17: “Made some bad decisions, made some bad choices in life.”
Seventeen-year-old Manuel says back in his San Francisco neighborhood where he got in trouble he did macho sports like basketball or weightlifting. But after three months, he’s a believer in the meditative powers of yoga.
Manuel, 17: “It’s helped me release stress.”
Each class begins with breathing, stretching, feeling the body and its surroundings.
Then _ meditation—turning the focus inward, blocking out the outside world, which for many of these kids, was destructive.
Jonathan Weinstock, instructor: “Either close your eyes, or find a spot on the ground you can look at, so you can just relax.”
Instructor Jonathan Weinstock says it’s all about mindfulness.
Jonathan Weinstock, yoga instructor: “Being present to one’s situation, one’s surroundings, what’s happening in the moment, and with that, awareness to make better choices.”
Seventeen-year-old Jordan from East Palo Alto says the techniques he’s learned are already helping him now.
Jordan, yoga student: “It keeps me from doing negative things, negative behaviors that got me into this predicament. It makes me think twice before acting.”
A questionnaire shows camp staff saw more positive behavior from the residents who took yoga. And the kids themselves showed higher self-esteem. But not all correctional facilities trying yoga therapy are finding success.
A prison in Norway stopped holding yoga classes after it found they were making some more aggressive and irritable. The warden said the exercises could make inmates more dangerous by unlocking their psychological barriers.
“It can tap into some things that may be more difficult, so that makes sense to me.”
But Weinstock says, with the right support, becoming aware of one’s inner feelings can only be beneficial.
One Camp Glenwood graduate agrees. Omar Turcios from Daly City credits yoga for turning a hot-tempered teen into a level-headed construction worker.
Omar Turcios, former yoga student: “I was an angry person. Anger management never worked. This class for some reason I felt relaxed, at ease.”
And in control—which is what many of these students say they’ve never felt, until now.
Manuel says when he finishes the program he will continue stretching his body, mind, and potential.
Manuel, yoga student: “Now that I’m here working to improve, hopefully have a successful life when I get out.”
