“I was a wild student, so my parents took me to an initial diagnosis,” said one of the inmates in the therapeutic program, aged 22. “But my parents couldn’t afford the other part of the diagnosis, and everything stopped. The first time I understood what I suffer from was in prison.”

In Dr. Amalia Einat and Dr. Tomer Einat’s book, Bill of Indictment – Learning Disabilities, Dropping Out and Delinquency they say: “Approximately 70% of criminal inmates in Israel, all living under Compulsory Education Law, were found to suffer from significant learning disabilities. They dropped out of the Education. System as early as primary school, and according to their testimony and interpretation, there is a substantial connection between the system’s attitude towards their academic failure and their subsequent dropping out, and deterioration into delinquency. There is no doubt that for at least some of the prisoners, it was possible to change their life direction if measures had been taken for early discovery
of the learning disability, and if they had been provided with emotional support and effective treatment.”

In the Israel Prison Service’s Attention Centers there are therapeutic programs conducted for inmates diagnosed with Attention Deficits and learning disabilities. Our program intends on integrating meditation practice as part of the therapeutic program, and thus assisting and supporting prisoners’ rehabilitation.