The Quiet Within

The “Inner Peace” Wing

The “Inner Peace Wing” program is intended for an entire prison wing, with the idea that all inmates in the wing will participate.
During the past 17 years we have led inmates weekly in meditation and have encouraged them to practice daily in-between sessions. The benefits from meditation increase substantially in the short and long term the more regularly and frequently it is practiced. However, this requires great self-discipline and is difficult (for anyone practicing meditation, not just inmates).

Thus, the idea of the “Inner Peace Wing” program was born: Volunteers will go to prison daily for the duration of four months in order to support daily meditation practice of all inmates in the wing.
We believe that the program will increase the chances of rehabilitation of prisoners who participate, and have great benefits in many areas, in the short, as well as long term.

The process that inmates will undertake will affect transformation not only on the personal level, but also in the communal level. A connection will be formed among those who practice together, with greater mutual support and a noticeable decline in the number of violent incidents among inmates in the wing.

Our aim is that participants will be able to apply the practice in their lives and make it relevant to the way they deal with difficulties they face. Practice will be used as an inner anchor to support them during hardship and distress. Thus, while in prison, and also following their release, their chances of rehabilitation will greatly increase (as it depends on an inner change of awareness that can then lead to external behavioral transformation).

Testimonial of an inmate from Ma’asiyahu Prison:
“That hour with the volunteer gave me an important tool during my incarceration. A tool for balancing pressures, feelings, and thoughts that bubble over during that time. Every day at sunrise I practiced what we learned in our weekly session, and its implementation gave me space where I could stay present in reality and receive a ‘plate of quietness’ that became my real breakfast here. The program helps a great
deal with issues of control, whereby the lack of control was an important factor that got me here, and learning control will also prevent me from returning to prison, and help me go back to a normative life.”

This kind of program has never been introduced anywhere in Israel, and probably in the world, and will be accompanied by a collaborative research of the Israel Prison Authority, Bar-Ilan University, Tel Aviv University and The Academic College of Emek Yizrael.

The program is currently being established, and will be launched in 2024.