Mindfulness Meditation in a Men’s Detention Facility

Summary

Through ethnographic immersion in a prison meditation class, the chapter reveals how narratives of individual self-improvement dominate correctional programming. The researcher, acting as participant-observer, finds that volunteers replicate the prison's message that incarcerated individuals must take ownership of their choices and attitudes, reframing their reality as a product of personal decisions. Many incarcerated persons endorse this idea despite also holding strong systemic critiques, illustrating the power of this messaging.

Study at a glance

Abstract

This chapter illustrates the predominance of narratives about individual self-improvement in prisons, through an ethnography of a meditation class in an incarceration facility. It describes how the researcher becomes participant-observer in this class, shadowing the chaplain who conducts the class, practicing along with the students, and immersing themselves in the prison environment. This ethnographic immersion reveals the power of the prison’s messaging, when replicated by volunteers: that incarcerated individuals must take ownership of their situation, their choices, their attitudes, retooling their reality and reframing it as more “workable” since it is a product of their own choices. It shows the resonance that this idea has for incarcerated persons, many of whom seem to endorse it despite their strong systemic critiques.