TM in the Pen

Stopping mayhem with mantras

"The vilest deeds like poison weeds bloom well in prison air," wrote Oscar Wilde. In the California prison system, for years one of the most violent in the U.S., something quite different has taken root: Transcendental Meditation. At Folsom Prison, a state-run storehouse for repeat offenders, more than 250 inmates over the past three years have stopped hating and hitting each other to sit quietly and think their mantras. Encouraged by Folsom's example, authorities at San Quentin ("the Q") and Deuel Vocational Institution have opened their doors to TM programs. The state parole board has asked for $42,500 in federal funds to support them.

Says Pat Corum, a three-time loser serving a double life sentence at San Quentin for murder and kidnaping: "The walls in my head were thicker than prison walls. With TM, those walls have come down." Other converts include members of the Mexican Mafia, Aryan Brotherhood and Black Guerrilla Family, groups well known for making mayhem in California prisons. "It don't sound right to say I enjoy being here, but it don't bother me like it did before," says Felix Padia, a Folsom inmate who has been meditating for 17 months. Says Convicted Dope Peddler Willie Castaneda, 55: "I am even beginning to like myself."

To back up these testimonials, Psychologist Alan Abrams, a ten-year practitioner of TM, tested the emotions and psyches of 120 Folsom inmates, half of whom were meditators. Using a battery of psychological and personality tests, he found that neuroticism among the meditators decreased 50% on the average, hostility 22%, anxiety 60% and suspicion 27%. No significant changes were recorded for the nonmeditators. Perhaps the most convincing statistic of all is that out of 58 meditators who have been released from Folsom over the past two years, only two have returned. Folsom's average recidivism fate is 15% for prisoners released one to two years, rising eventually to 50%.

Such results may not justify the millennial euphoria of the TM faithful who now predict that meditation may eliminate prison violence, and ultimately prisons, entirely. But any results are encouraging in a field where rehabilitation has been an almost total failure. Says State Department of Corrections Chief of Research Robert Dickover: "I think I have seen enough results from prison studies to justify my opinion that positive effects are emerging from the TM program."

The cost of TM training is about $250 a prisoner for a one-year program that includes weekly meetings and videotaped lectures. So far, TM volunteers have picked up almost all of the tab.

To recruit contributors, the TM organization uses a videotape of Convict Corum talking by phone to Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, the guru from India who brought TM to Europe and the U.S. TM organizers are also putting together an index of rehabilitation, though there is some doubt that parole boards would--or should--judge an inmate ready for release on the basis of things like improved alpha and theta brain waves. Penal authorities are more likely to be persuaded by the support TM has so far given parolees through free counseling at the 80 TM centers around the state.

As for the prisoners, some are no doubt looking forward to learning the advanced TM techniques called Siddhis. TM enthusiasts claim that by using Siddhis to refine control over mind and body, they can levitate and walk through walls.

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