Since January 2023, I’ve been offering meditation workshops to several groups of inmates at Béziers’ prison.
I never imagined that the dharma would be so well received there. It’s so useful in this dark corner of our society. It’s an extraordinary experience!

Some harsh living conditions

If it is possible to find a certain well being in prison, it can only come from within. Prisoners are generally faced with remorse, injustice and an incredible violence in many forms. This often leads to depression and even suicide.
In France, there are seven times more suicides in captivity than outside of prison1. Prisonners are a fragile population (although we often hold the idea that they are “tough”), who are often there because of sociological problems (from disadvantaged backgrounds, with little education and a blocked future). There are also 25% of psychiatric cases, as the psychiatric hospitals are full and the number of places and psychiatric doctors have greatly diminished. These are often people who find it harder to cope with their emotions, who have drug and alcohol addictions, etc. And to complete the picture, the majority of the population is young!
The suicide rate is on the rise, not the least because of prison overcrowding. Some prisons have an occupancy rate of over 200% (230% occupancy in Perpignan prison on August 16, 20232), which means that inmates are crammed 2 to 3 to a room in 11m2 cells, some sleeping on mattresses on the floor, with nowhere to lie down during the day. Imagine living like this for 22 out of 24 hours a day (They eat in their cells, there are only two hours a day for daily exercise),and have to share their cell with strangers who are sometimes far from being your friends!

France has been condemned 19 times by the European Court of Human Rights, for violating Article 3 prohibiting torture, inhuman or degrading treatment 3 .

Despite this, too many people in France still think that “prison is a hotel”, or that inmates must suffer enough to be afraid of going back there, and therefore behave better on release. The opposite is true. Treating people inhumanely is not the way to teach them to become human. Victims of injustice, robbed of their dignity, the majority of inmates leave hardened and full of hatred. Their psychiatric problems are exacerbated: a three-year study shows that two-thirds of inmates leaving prison are subject to psychiatric disorders4.. No wonder France has one of the highest recidivism rates in Europe: 40% of inmates return to prison within 5 years of their release

My meditation groups

In Béziers’ Prison, there are now a dozen “elders”. The transformation is tangible. They hug each other when they meet at our Tuesday session, meditate in their cells, are careful to recognize toxic thoughts and learn not to feed them, practice the vision of impermanence, mindfulness, and support each other when they pass each other during their daily outdoor exercise… And this year, I’m going to offer them practices to noursish self-compassion and loving kindness, another part of our adventure that I’m delighted about!
Motivated by the suffering of the life that brought them there, by the suffering of the living conditions in prison, and perhaps even more by the desire to take other paths in life when they get out, they practice with enthusiasm. And some are looking forward to joining our sangha when they are released.

The team

As the meditation sessions with the prisoners unfolded, strong links were forged with the entire medical and paramedical team of the USMP (Unité de Soins en Milieu Pénitentiaire) at Béziers prison. This unit depends on the Béziers Hospital, which initially approached me and provided funding for 30 sessions of meditation, covering the first year, 2023.
The head of the USMP department is a committed and effective supporter. The general practitioners and psychiatrists are our spokespeople and encourage the prisoners they see in consultations to attend our sessions. Their involvement is tangible. The Health Manager, a meditation enthusiast, is following this project with the utmost attention. Their interest in our project has led us to offer a meditation workshop to carers at the prison hospital, and over twenty people have signed up.
From September 2023, Véronique Delmas, a member of the administrative council of Dharma Nature Association, joined us, inspired by the uniqueness of this approach. She will be assisting me with the administrative side of things, as well as on the field. As a doctor, she is working with the medical team to assess the impact of meditation on the daily lives of prisoners. Others members of Dharma Nature are in the process of joining the project.

Let’s hear from prisoners taking part in meditation sessions

« Meditation has allowed me to look at things differently for the first time in my life, to take a step back, even if it’s hard work at times, to get to know myself better psychologically, physically and behaviourally, it’s like an antidepressant »

« Thanks to meditation, I’m less reactive and I sleep better »

« I’ve noticed changes in my behaviour, I’m able to manage better my anger »

« I’m continuing to work on my emotions, which means I can feel them but I’m no longer a slave to them, I don’t let them manipulate me »

« Meditation has helped me realise that you can’t control everything »

« When I meditate in the evening, lying on my bed, and my mind is calm, then I feel free, I’m no longer in prison, I could be lying on my bed at home »

« For the last few weeks, I’ve been meditating twice a day. That was the only way I could stop painful thoughts from proliferating. And I succeeded! It was difficult, especially at this time of year, because I’m not going to be able to spend Christmas with my children, and that thought, when it strikes me, is so horrible. »

The project

On the strength of this year’s experience and all the enthusiasm, a bigger project is taking shape:
We want to make the learning of meditation a lasting feature of Béziers prison (1,050 inmates) and ensure that inmates can continue to practise beyond the groups organised by Dharma Nature.
To achieve this, we need to :
– Continue to deepen the practice with older inmates, and increase the number of interventions to welcome new ones (the waiting list is growing fast),
– Record guided meditations, which would be broadcast on the internal television channel in each cell (this project has been accepted by the prison administration),
– Provide the five prison libraries with literature on meditation,
– Organise correspondence between meditators on the outside and meditators in prison (this project has not yet been approved by the prison administration).
– Distribute a booklet on meditation in prison6 that I have started to write…

Thanks to this, in a second phase, we intend to extend this project and offer these tools (booklets, books in libraries, guided meditations) to other prisons, so that prisoners can come into contact with the pratice of meditation and make it their own, even if no workshop is offered th

Get involved and help the association