India, 42, suffers from manic depression and post-traumatic stress disorder. She has spent almost all of her adult life in jails and prisons. [John Gress for The New York Times]I was catching up on my interweb reading list this morning and was struck by two pieces about prisoners and mental health. The first was an op-ed piece by New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof called Inside a Mental Hospital Called Jail. Kristof cites a 2006 Justice Department study that claims that more than half of prisoners in the US have a mental health problem, with females in particular showing diagnosable mental disorders in an astonishing 75% of the inmate population. It’s just staggering to contemplate how many human beings are presently languishing in prisons mostly due to mental health problems (including substance abuse issues) that are bound to get far worse in prison environments that are not committed to treatment and rehabilitation.
On the bright side, I was greatly impressed with the work of former prisoner Fleet Maull of the Prison Mindfulness Institute. Maull began teaching mindfulness to prisoners while he was serving a 14-year sentence for drug trafficking. In the powerful short film below, Maull points out that often times what lands people in prison (and frequently brings them back) is a lack of good problem-solving and communication skills. By teaching prisoners some foundational social-emotional self-regulation skills through mindfulness techniques, Maull is not only giving prisoners some tools to help them successfully adapt to life behind bars, but he’s also preparing them to succeed in life outside of prison, if they are fortunate enough to have that opportunity.
![India, 42, suffers from manic depression and post-traumatic stress disorder. She has spent almost all of her adult life in jails and prisons. [John Gress for The New York Times]](http://www.integralhealthresources.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/09kristof2-articleLarge.jpg)