Freedom Behind Bars: Vipassana in Prison

Vol.5 No.2 April, 1995

 

Words of Dhamma

 

Daṇḍeneke damayanti, aṅkusehi kasāhi ca; Adaṇḍena asetthena—ahaṃ dantomhi tādinā.

 

- There are some that tame with beatings, Some with goads and some with lashes; One who has neither rod nor weapon—I am tamed by such as he.

 

- Majjhima Nikāya II, 105

Freedom Behind Bars: Vipassana in Prison

In April 1994, a ten-day Vipassana course for over a thousand people was held inside the confines of Tihar Prison in New Delhi. The course was conducted by Goenkaji and Mataji, with 13 assistant teachers. This was the largest Vipassana course to be held in modern times, inside or outside a jail.

With about 9,000 inmates, Tihar is one of the largest prisons in Asia. The site covers several hundred acres in a district of suburban New Delhi. Because of the difficulty of administering so large a population, Tihar is divided into four separate jails. Inmates from all four jails participated in the April course.

The course was the culmination of events which began about 20 years ago. The first Vipassana courses in an Indian prison were conducted in 1975 and 1977 by Goenkaji at the Central Jail, Jaipur, at the invitation of Mr. Ram Singh, the then Home Secretary to the Government of Rajasthan. Ram Singhji, himself an enthusiastic practitioner of Vipassana, was eager to see if the technique could be effective in solving problems in society and government, as well as the problems faced by individuals.

The results of these two courses, and a course for police officials at the Police Academy in Jaipur, were very encouraging. However, due to the change of government in the state and transfer of key officials, the Vipassana program in the jails could not be pursued further. Ram Singhji subsequently retired from government service and was one of the first assistant teachers appointed by Goenkaji. When he told Goenkaji of his disappointment that prison courses were not continuing, Goenkaji responded: “Don’t worry. The seeds of Vipassana have been sown. The time will come again.”

The time did come, after nearly fifteen years, when an assistant teacher course was held at the Jaipur Central Jail in 1990. This was followed by six prison courses in the state of Gujarat starting in 1991. The courses have been the subject of several sociological studies which have concluded that Vipassana has a marked positive impact on behaviour and attitude. One very common feeling–the desire for revenge–is noticeably reduced or entirely eliminated when prisoners practise Vipassana. Relations among the prisoners and jail staff become much more harmonious, and self-discipline dramatically improves, decreasing the need for aggressive supervision and punishment by the jail officials.

How Vipassana Came to Tihar

To organize a course for one thousand was an ambitious undertaking. It was the result of a unique collaboration among several people devoted to improving the conditions of some of society’s most unfortunate members. In July 1993, Ram Singhji received a letter from his former government colleague, Mr. M.L. Mehta, the Additional Secretary in the Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India. He asked if a Vipassana course could be organized in the Central Jail, Tihar. This invitation from the Government of India was reinforced by the enthusiastic support of the Inspector General (IG) of Prisons, New Delhi, Dr. Kiran Bedi.

Mrs. Bedi is a remarkable social reformer who is well-known in India for her unique 21-year career as a police officer. Now 44 years old, she was the first woman inducted into the Indian Police Service in 1972. She is known for her courage, dynamic energy and profound devotion to helping suffering people. During the April course, Goenkaji said publicly that he wished to call her “Karuna” Bedi because of her deep compassion.

Mrs. Bedi was appointed as IG in May, 1993. The situation in Tihar Prison, as described by the Superintendent of Jail No. 2, Mr. Tarsem Kumar, was bleak: “To add to the acute problems of overcrowding, inadequate sanitation, insufficient breathing space, etc., the jail staff were trained under the old rules where the outlook was to oppress, deprive, isolate and punish. The staff believed that oppressing and imposing maximum restrictions on the inmates would make them suffer, so that once a prisoner was released he would not commit crimes again for fear of being sent back to this hell. But they were mistaken. After their release, many prisoners did return, and some prisoners who were incarcerated for petty crimes resorted to more serious crimes after their release, having learned in Tihar how to become bigger and better criminals. One of the members of the Planning Commission of India correctly remarked that the prisoners at Tihar were doing their PhD in crime. Tihar was breeding criminals, not reformed citizens.”

From the first day of her new appointment, Mrs. Bedi declared that she wanted to turn Tihar Prison into an ashram within six months. She immediately set about instituting a series of wide-ranging, effective, and startlingly innovative reforms, which quickly resulted in a dramatic improvement in the atmosphere of the prison. Mrs. Bedi’s exemplary leadership and pathbreaking reforms are motivated by a strong conviction that prisons should be institutions of rehabilitation, not punishment.

As expressed by Superintendent Kumar: “She wanted everyone to feel that the prisoners were not rejected by society but were a part of it, and if they were ready to change, they would be welcomed with open arms. She told us: ‘There is little difference between the inmates and ourselves, a very small thread. They lost their balance of mind. We have also lost our tempers, but thankfully we are not held inside this prison. I believe everyone, if given a chance, will try to change, and I want to give them that chance...We need to create trust and confidence instead of distrust...If we succeed in using understanding and compassion in helping them to change, the percentage of recidivism [relapse into criminal behavior] will dramatically decrease, and society will be the beneficiary.”

One day in the early weeks of her posting, Mrs. Bedi was on her prison rounds with one of her assistant superintendents. Reflecting on the agony she saw everywhere, she reflected aloud: “How can we find a solution to these prisoners’ emotional problems?” Her jail colleague replied: “Ma’am, why don’t you try Vipassana? This is what has helped me to decrease my anger.” By seeming coincidence, Mr. M.L. Mehta from the Home Ministry had recommended Vipassana to her at about the same time. Mrs. Bedi made inquiries and contacted Ram Singhji in Jaipur. He advised her that the first step for introducing Vipassana into Tihar would be for some of the jail officials to take a course.

Mrs. Bedi made a deliberate decision to send some of the angriest members of her jail staff to attend a Vipassana course. These officials were authoritarian and short-tempered, feeling themselves to be above correction. Yet when they returned from their ten-day Vipassana course, their interactions were markedly more congenial and cooperative, as confirmed by their colleagues and the inmates alike. This gave Mrs. Bedi and the other jail coordinators growing confidence that Vipassana was indeed an effective method of reform.

The Early Courses in the Prison

The first course at Tihar was held in late November, 1993 in Jail No. 2, which houses the hard core of the Tihar population: the ten percent who have been convicted of crimes. The course was conducted by Ram Singhji and two other assistant teachers. Ninety-six prisoners and 23 jail staff participated. On the closing day, over an open microphone, many prisoners expressed their joy at finding a technique for self-liberation in this unlikely setting. Many said they realized through practicing Vipassana that they were responsible for their own actions. They said that they no longer harbored feelings of revenge but rather, blessed those responsible for sending them to Tihar because this brought them into contact with Vipassana.

The prisoners jokingly told Ram Singhji that they would not let him leave the jail until he promised to hold more Vipassana courses there soon. Ram Singhji was slightly at a loss; he did not think it possible to confirm dates for more courses on such short notice. However, Goenkaji was contacted, and arrangements were quickly made for six assistant teachers to go to Tihar on New Year’s Day, 1994 to conduct four simultaneous courses in three jails.
A total of about 300 prisoners participated in the January courses. News of this was picked up by the national wire service and appeared in all the major newspapers in India. Reports also appeared in the international press. Mrs. Bedi stated publicly that she had been searching for a method which would bring about a tranformation of the prisoners, and that she had found it in Vipassana meditation.

Privately, Mrs. Bedi told Ram Singhji that she wanted the entire prison population to experience the benefits of the practice; and, that at the rate they were going, this would take years. She suggested that a large course for one thousand prisoners be held. Ram Singhji recounted a prediction made by Goenkaji’s teacher, Sayagyi U Ba Khin, of Rangoon, Burma. When Goenkaji first came to India to teach Vipassana in 1969, his courses were very small. Fourteen people attended the first course. After about a year, word spread rapidly, and the numbers of people requesting Vipassana camps started to grow. Word reached Sayagyi back in Burma that Goenkaji had taught a course for 100 people (a surprisingly large number in those days). Sayagyi declared: “One day Goenka will teach 1,000 people!” When Ram Singhji remembered this prediction, he reflected that it might become a reality within the walls of Tihar Prison.

The Course for One Thousand

Mrs. Bedi set about selecting and organizing a site suitable for accommodation of over one thousand jail inmates, Goenkaji and Mataji, and a large team of assistant teachers. A very large hall was needed for daily group sittings and evening discourses. In Jail No. 4 two new buildings were nearing completion and there were several wards housing prisoners in a compact area. This site was selected for the upcoming large course. The Public Works Department of the Government hastened the completion of the new buildings with assistance of several skilled jail inmates. With the productive and cooperative spirit now prevailing in the prison, the inmates dug drainage ditches, laid pipes, weeded and levelled a large area and helped in erection of a huge shamiānā—an open air tent. To put over one thousand prisoners together in a tent without coercive vigil was a high security risk, a stupendous task.

On the evening of April 4, some 1,003 male students gathered in the huge tent in Jail No. 4 to receive the opening instructions from Goenkaji. Simultaneously, the first Vipassana course for female prisoners began in Jail No. 1, attended by 49 inmates and conducted by two female assistant teachers. Thirteen male assistant teachers, each with a group of 75 to 100, helped to conduct the male course. They were assisted by a handful of trained workers from outside the prison, and about 60 “old student” prisoners serving for the first time.

Ninety percent of the inmates held at Tihar are “under­trials”–that is, those awaiting the outcome of their trials; the other ten percent are convicts. The majority of the students in the April courses were undertrials. They had been charged with crimes and offenses ranging from drug trafficking and robbery to murder, terrorist acts and rape. They were from diverse religious backgrounds, including Hindu, Muslim, Sikh, Christian, and Buddhist. More than one third were illiterate.

Twenty foreign inmates attended the male course; eight attended the female course. They were from many countries including Germany, Spain, France, Italy, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, South Africa, Nigeria, Somalia, Tanzania, Sene­gal, Canada and Australia.

In the early hours of Day 1, a sudden storm—unusual for that time of year—descended. Rain and strong winds caused the ceiling and walls of the tent to collapse. All the rugs and meditation cushions were completely soaked. An emergency meeting of the assistant teachers was called at 3:30 a.m. to devise a way to save the course from total collapse: the hall was a shambles and strong gales still blew. When Goenkaji and Mataji came to survey the scene they advised that the course program be continued and that everything would soon be all right.

Mr. Meena, the jail superintendent, arrived and an emergency jail public address system was commissioned to transmit the instructions and chanting into the barracks where all the assistant teachers went to meditate and guide the inmates. After breakfast, the weather began to clear, and a massive salvage operation was launched. A large team of prisoners not attending the course began the daunting task of rehabilitating the “hall.” They moved more than 1,000 cushions outside in the sun to dry, sewed numerous sections of torn material, reinstalled ceiling fans and electric wires, and mopped up areas of standing water. By 7 p.m., the tent was ready for the students to reassemble for Goenkaji’s first discourse. The first major obstacle had been successfully overcome!

There were many other difficulties involved in managing a retreat for so many people in basic and overcrowded conditions. Despite the inconveniences, the course proceeded smoothly, and by the last day it was apparent that something unique had been achieved. Over ten percent of the prison had just completed a Vipassana course, including many who might never have come into contact with the teaching under other circumstances.

This was the largest course Goenkaji has conducted in a quarter-century of teaching Vipassana. Every evening he gave discourses in Hindi, and answered questions from the students for 30 to 45 minutes. The discourses were videotaped for broadcast by Zee TV, a pan-Asian cable television company.

The course paved the way for the opening of the first permanent centre for the practice of Vipassana in a prison. After the final meditation on April 15, the assembly of about 1,100 students, jail staff and guests remained to witness the inauguration of the new centre in Jail No. 4, which Goenkaji named “Dhamma Tihar.” Within three weeks, the centre began to hold two ten-day courses per month for students from all four jails.

Vipassana is now recognized as an effective method for reforming prisoners. After the success of the January Tihar courses, the Ministry of Home Affairs called a meeting of the Inspectors General of Prisons from all over India, and a proposal was adopted to introduce Vipassana as a reform measure in all the prisons in the country.

During the course, Goenkaji was asked by a journalist why Vipassana is good for prisoners. He responded: “Vipassana is good for everyone! We are all prisoners of the negative habit patterns of our own minds. The practice of Vipassana liberates us from this bondage...Vipassana is a tool which can help all suffering people, those who are behind bars separated from their families, and those who are not.” He said: “What is happening at Tihar is a message of hope which will benefit the whole world.”

Message for Prisoners

The following message from Goenkaji was played for the participants of four simultaneous assistant teacher courses held at Tihar Prison in January,1994.

Friends:

You have all assembled here to liberate yourselves, liberate yourselves from all bondages, all miseries. To be imprisoned in prison like this is a great agony. And to be liberated from prison is very fortunate. But besides the confinement within these four walls, there is a greater prison in which all of us suffer so much. This is the prison of our own negativities, our own mental defilements, which keep overpowering us.

We have become the slaves of our own anger, hatred, ill will, animosity; slaves of our defilements of craving, clinging, greed, passion, attachment, ego. Any defilement that arises in our minds overpowers us—makes us its prisoner so quickly! We start suffering immediately. This suffering is not limited to the area inside these prison walls. People inside this jail or outside this jail are all prisoners of their own habit patterns. They keep generating one negativity or the other, and they keep on suffering.

If we are relieved of these negativities, we start enjoying the true happiness of liberation. We start enjoying real peace, real harmony. When our minds are freed from impurities, the entire habit pattern of our life changes. A pure mind is naturally full of love and compassion, infinite love and compassion; full of joy, sympathetic joy; and full of equanimity, perfect equilibrium of mind. This is real happiness, real peace, real harmony.

The bondage of mental defilements is a universal bondage. And the happiness of liberation from these negativities is also universal. Whether one is a Hindu or Muslim, Jain or Buddhist, Christian or Jew, Sikh or Parsi—it makes no difference. Anyone who is imprisoned in the bondage of defilements is bound to suffer. And anyone who comes out of this bondage starts to enjoy peace and harmony.

The first day of the new year has brought you this wonderful technique of ancient India, the technique discovered by the Enlightened Ones. The technique is so scientific, so result-oriented, so non-sectarian. It brings you the message of liberation, the message of peace and harmony.

May all of you who participate in this camp work diligently, patiently and persistently, to come out of all your bondages, all your miseries. May a new era start in your lives. May Dhamma bring you full liberation. May you all enjoy real peace, real harmony.

New Appointments

India and Nepal

Teacher

• Dr. Om Prakash

Deputy Teachers

• Mr. Natverlal and Mrs. Kaushalya Parikh (Co-ordinators of Dhamma Koṭa (Rajkot); Organization of Centres in  Gujarat area)
• Miss Shanti N. Shah (Co-Ordinator of Jail Courses (Female Inmates)
• Mr. Satyendranath and Mrs. Laj Tandon (Co-ordinators of Training of A.T.s, Trust Members and Dhamma Workers)
• Mr S. Adaviyappa (Co-ordinator of Dhamma Sumana (Bangalore); Organization of Centres In Southern India; Organization of Children’s Courses)
• Mrs. Usha Modak (Co-ordinator of Training of Female Dhamma Workers)

Co-ordinators

• Dr. Rajendra M. Chokhani (Research—Health and Management)
• Mr. Radhe Shyam and Mrs. Vimla Goenka (Publication of Tipiṭaka and Other Literature)
• Mr. Premji Savla (Centre Construction and Planning)
• Mr. Arun Toshniwal (Teaching Aids and Equipment)
• Mr. Vimalchand Surana (Co-ordinator of Dhamma Thalī, Jaipur)
• Mr. Mahasukh Khandhar (Scheduling of Courses and Follow Up)
• Mr. Narayan O. Patil (Co-ordinator of Dhamma Sarovara (Dhule) and Marathwada area)
• Mr. Sudhir and Mrs. Madhuri Shah (Co-ordinators of Dhamma Nāga and entire Vidarbha area)
• Dr. Raman Khosla (Conferences, Seminars and Jail Courses)

Senior Assistant Teachers

• Mrs. Kesarben Shah
• Dr. (Miss) Tara Jadhav
• Mrs. Ilaichiben Agarwal
• Mrs. Veena Gandhi
• Mr. Ramniklal Mehta
• Mr. Gopal and Mrs. Pushpa Singh
• Mr. Jayantilal S. and Mrs. Kamala Thacker
• Mrs. Shashi Beri
• Mrs. Trilochan Kaur
• Mrs. Rama Patil
• Mr. Madan Tuladhar (Nepal)

Other Countries

Deputy Teachers

• Stephen and Christine Smith (Co-ordinators of Dhamma Pabhā, Queensland, Australia)

Senior Assistant Teachers

• Anne Doneman (Australia)
• Dr. Paul and Susan Fleischman (U.S.A.)
• Parker and Laura Mills (U.S.A.)
• Floh Lehman (Germany)
• Ian Hetherington (U.K.)
• Laraine Doneman (Australia)
• Donald and Sally MacDonald (Australia)
• Bill and Anne Crecelius (U.S.A.)

Assistant Teachers (from Junior A.T.s)

• Hazel Strange (U.K.)
• Ron and Helen Ranke (Australia)
• Michael and Linda Dahm (Australia)

Assistant Teachers (New)

• Lallie Pratt (U.S.A.)
• Dr. Myo Nyunt Oo (U.K.)
• Nicolae and Julienne Iftene (Australia)
• Nirand and Sutthi Chayadom (Thailand)
• Dr. Banduvarobhas Svetarundra (Thailand)
• Daw Yema Maw Naing (Myanmar)
• Toni O’Hare (Japan)
• Yoshiko Nishida (Japan)

Note: New Indian Assistant Teachers and Junior Assistant Teachers will be printed in the next issue.