Study
The subjects were ages 13-18, and they were 707B offenders of violent crimes with deadly weapon, murder, rape, armed robbery, and terrorizing threats against others.
The course was taught over a period of one week for about 20–25 hours. These courses took place between January and April of 2001, with post-testing approximately eight weeks after instruction. Follow-up consisted of one-half hour of guided meditation and the breathing techniques taught on the course, conducted at bedtime three times a week.
Results
The result of this study showed a significant decrease in anxiety in every course, except one that had four participants. This would indicate that the course was successful with a variety of group sizes and a variety of teachers. Overall the numbers show that the decrease was statistically significant at the .004 level. This would lead one to the conclusion that in our population that the Sudarshan Kriya and Street Lights Program decreased anxiety, that in turn led to the decrease in anger, fear, and reactive behaviors that were previously reported. Number of minors in incident reports decreased significantly within the four-month period that these courses were taught. Staff reported there were no night-time disturbances on the evenings that the Sudarshan Kriya and meditations were conducted. These results were in spite of a change of director, a massive changeover in staffing, and significant deficits in staffing ratios during this time period. All of which are understood to increase the anxiety level of the detainees and affect the level of security.
Due to the success of the program, the directors from five other camps at Challenger Memorial Youth Center, where this program was being conducted, had all requested that this program be put into their camps. Further studies on larger numbers of subjects, with controls, are needed to confirm these findings.
"Wards who entered camp with their hard, angry composures and delinquent attitudes were transformed by the end of one week into happy, smiling youngsters. In the 33 years of my probation experience I have never seen such responses."
William Richardson, Former Director of Los Angeles County V.A.P. Anger Management Program, Camp Michael Smith, Camp Francis Scobee, Lancaster, CA
