Wednesday, August 03, 2005

No Meditation, Please, We're Berserkers

Apparently Norway's most dangerous criminals don't respond well to yoga.

OSLO, Norway - A Norwegian prison has stopped giving yoga sessions to inmates after finding that some of the prisoners became more aggressive and agitated, a newspaper reported Wednesday.

The yoga classes were introduced on at trial basis earlier this year at Ringerike prison, which holds some of Norway's most dangerous criminals.

Prison officials had hoped mediation and breathing exercises would help inmates contain their anger, but it appeared to have the opposite effect.

Some inmates became more agitated and aggressive, while others developed sleeping problems as a result of the yoga sessions, prison warden Sigbjoern Hagen told newspaper Ringerikes Blad. Hagen said that deep breathing exercises could make the inmates more dangerous, by unblocking their psychological barriers.


I'm not sure what that last sentence is supposed to mean; does the warden believe that their neuroses the only thing keeping these guys from getting seriously batshit crazy? That the better our mental health, the more prone to antisocial behavior we are?

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