The Transcendental Meditation Program at Stillwater Prison

As previous research had demonstrated physiological and psychological changes in persons practicing the Transcendental Meditation (TM) technique that would be of great value for rehabilitating criminals, the value of the Transcendental Meditation program in a large prison setting was systematically examined. Volunteer inmates at Stillwater Prison desiring to begin Transcendental Meditation were randomly assigned to an experimental group of 30 subjects who received instruction in the TM technique and a control group of 20 subjects who were not taught TM until after the experimental period. A second control group consisted of 16 inmates not desiring to begin TM. The Spielberger State-Trait Anxiety Inventory was administered to all subjects twice before and nine times, at weekly intervals, after the experimental group learned the Transcendental Meditation technique. The meditating inmates decreased substantially in both trait and state anxiety in the first weeks after instruction in Transcendental Meditation and maintained this level over the nine weekly testings. Both control groups increased slightly in anxiety over the same period. Analysis of covariance showed significant posttest differences between the experimental group and both control groups for both trait and state anxiety (p < .001 for each comparison). Stillwater's meditators shifted from being one of the most anxious populations to being one of the least anxious. Prison rule infractions were reduced by more than two-thirds for the meditators with almost no change for the controls. Meditating subjects reported that after learning TM they participated in a mean of twice as many recreational and educational activities for a mean of three times as many hours per week, a significant increase (p <.OJ). These results imply improved adjustment after release from prison. Indeed, of the 16 meditating inmates who were subsequently paroled (and had been on parole for an average of six months at last contact), only one violated parole. Combined with the extremely low cost of introducing the Transcendental Meditation program (compared with other prison programs) and its high acceptability to inmates, these results indicate the great potential of the Transcendental Meditation program as an effective means for rehabilitation.