The Ministry of Justice has incorporated yoga workshops therapies into the “Casa del Buen Pastor” Women’s Penitentiary Center in Asunción, as part of its rehabilitation and social reintegration programs and projects.
The experience is developed by AUM Yoga Wellness Lab, with techniques focused on deep psychological factors and behavioral consequences as an alternative for the rehabilitation and transformation of women deprived of liberty.
Under the name of the program “Inner Refuge”, a calendar of yoga workshops was scheduled spread over eight days with two-hour sessions, as a trial run, between October 14 and 29. The workshops function as an experience where instructors teach techniques that combine relaxation, meditation, breathing, postures and exercises inspired by Hatha yoga, Pranayama and Yin yoga.
The face-to-face classes are taught by Marcela Romero, an accredited yoga therapy instructor, who is accompanied by other experts. This activity can be used by many of the 538 women deprived of liberty (MPL) currently incarcerated in the prison.
Alternative ways of resocialising inmates are part of the changes in the system contemplated in the New Model of Penitentiary Management. Yoga workshops, as a practice focused on mental and physical self-control, are now being implemented in penitentiaries as a psychosocial care reintegration program.
