Search Results for “the prison phoenix trust”

Source: The Prison Phoenix Trust

The Prison Phoenix Trust (PPT) is a charity registered in England in 1988 that offers help to prisoners through the disciplines of meditation and yoga, working with silence and the breath. The PPT encourages prisoners – and prison staff – to take up a daily practice and supports them with classes, free books and CDs, and personal correspondence. It also sends out quarterly newsletters, written mostly by inmates. The PPT is non-denominational and works with those of any religion or none.
The Trust trains and supports qualified yoga teachers for work in prisons, where they run yoga and meditation classes through substance misuse anger management education programs, paid from prison budgets. There are 136 regular classes in 80 prisons in the UK and Ireland, 22 of them for staff. Training events for teachers are held several times a year, and on alternate years the PPT delivers a 5-day teacher, training module for the British Wheel of Yoga, called "Teaching Yoga in Prison."
The PPT has its offices in Oxford and is run by two full-time and seven part-time staff, with the help of 25 volunteers. Its director is Sam Settle.
The PPT Scottish Link was set up in 1996 to increase the number of yoga classes in the 16 prisons in Scotland. At the end of 2009, there were 15 classes in 12 prisons and one in the Secure Medical Establishment at Carstairs State Hospital.
In 2003 The PPT Irish Link was formed to bring together the prison yoga and meditation teachers in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland and to encourage the sharing of experiences. The number of classes in Ireland rose to its largest ever in 2009 with 36 classes in 15 prisons: six in Northern Ireland and 30 in the Republic.