What is the Prison SMART Program?
Prison SMART Program
“If people get sick, we take them to the hospital and give them the right medicine to get better. If people’s behaviour is sick, we bring them to the prison, but we forget the medicines.” – Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar
The Mission
The Prison SMART Programme aims to transform the lives of people working in or incarcerated within the criminal justice system. Prison SMART teaches skills that reduce stress, heal trauma and provides practical knowledge of how to handle negative emotions in order to live to one's highest potential and contribute to society in a positive way.
- So far the lives of more than 3,50,000 prison inmates have been transformed through the ‘Prison Smart’ programs
Basic Premise
The basic premise of the program is that no individual is really ‘bad’ but takes to crime due to external stressors which they are unable to deal with effectively.
Prison - Philippines
Bringing The Art of Living Course to the New Bilibid Prison could very well be the best thing that happened to its 107 inmates in May. Prisoners undergo a lot of stress every moment of their life within the prison walls.
The Art of Living courses are meant to relieve stresses, develop human values, stimulate a sense of belonging, encourage service and ignite a life of celebration.
"I can sleep better now. My body feels lighter. My breathing makes me feel good. I feel more relaxed. I feel more loving. I can now accept my life here, despite my sentence. This is some of the feedback from the graduates.
They also reported that despite their very limited space in the cell, some do the exercises every day, as they were urged. Someone said that the others laughed at him when he did yoga alone in the open, so he organized a group to practice with. Read More
