Episode 36 - The dharma and karma of teaching Vedic meditation in prisons with Joh Jarvis from The Light Inside
Joh from The Light Inside giving a Vedic meditation introduction talk in North Dakota State Penitentiary, November 2023
Introduction to the episode.
We am so looking forward to sharing this next Mahasoma podcast episode with you all, as I’m joined by my colleague and friend, Joh Jarvis, who shares her story of the dharma and karma of teaching Vedic meditation in prisons. Joh is the Founder and Executive Director of The Light Inside, a not-for-profit foundation which takes meditation into prisons and jails across the United States.
For 23 years, Joh worked as a journalist, senior producer and senior executive at the Australian Broadcasting Corporation in Sydney, Melbourne, and Darwin. While continuing at the ABC, Joh became a Vedic Meditation teacher in 2014.
In 2015 at the age of 49, Joh sold her house and everything she owned and left her job to move to New York City where she knew virtually no-one. Within six months she met her wife, Susan, and Yorkshire Terrier, Tiny.
Four years later, just before the pandemic swept through NYC, Joh began teaching meditation to men in maximum security in New York’s Rikers Island jail. Three years later she set up The Light Inside which now operates in the North Dakota corrections system and is set to begin teaching meditation to incarcerated people in Pennsylvania and New Jersey.
I asked Joh to come on the podcast to share her story because it’s not every day you end up teaching Vedic meditation at age 54 in prisons. My hope is that her story will resonate beyond the specifics into what’s possible at any age, the dharma and purpose we can find, and the joy that comes from being of service to our humanity.
To be honest, I didn’t expect the episode to go in this direction - I thought we would just be talking about teaching meditation in prisons. But as you know, a story has a life of its own and wants to be told in its fullness. This is why I allow our podcast episodes to go for as long as they need to (yes this one is nearing the 2 hour mark again!) In a world of shortening attention spans and sound bites I find it refreshing to saunter into long format episodes where the process is as important as the outcome.
Joh teaching meditation to men in Rikers Island jail, New York City, Sept 2023
But before we get into it, I wanted to start with some statistics around incarceration and prisons.
In Australia, the number of prisoners has increased by 355 per cent since 1975, with over 40,500 people in prison in 2023 (9/10 being men). In the USA that number sits at 1.8 million incarcerated people. In China, 1.69 million. Across the world El Salvador, Cuba, and Rwanda have the highest percentage of their populations in prison.
The Australian government spent $21 billion in 2021-2022 alone on the criminal justice system, with the construction and maintenance of prisons costing Australian taxpayers over $6 billion. This equates to $405 per prisoner per day, or $147,900 per year.
In Australia 38 per cent of incarcerated people have been imprisoned for non-violent offences. $2.3 billion is spent to house these offenders in prisons. Even a one per cent shift in their number would save taxpayers more than $23 million per year. Imagine where we could spend that money.
Half the population in Australian jails are repeat offenders who return within 2 years of being released. In the USA 43% are rearrested within one year, and 82% rearrested at least once during the 10 years following their release.
People in prison are some of the most vulnerable in society and often come from disadvantaged backgrounds. They have experienced trauma in their lives and live with chronic conditions such as depression, anxiety disorders, psychotic disorders, and alcohol and other drug use disorders.
The Compassion Prison Project shares statistics around Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) of incarcerated people which includes emotional, physical, and sexual abuse or neglect, domestic violence, substance abuse, and having incarcerated family members. 98% of the US prison population has had at least one ACE, compared to 64% of the general US population, with 74% of prisoners having 4 or more ACEs, with sexual, physical, and substance abuse sitting at the top. Childhood trauma is defined as: “The experience of an event by a child that is emotionally painful or distressful, which often results in lasting mental and physical effects.”
In my eyes, these statistics scream that something is very much not working with our criminal justice system. And there are many people in the world who are asking the questions, are there better ways? Are there different ways? When your horizons have been contracted to a barred cell, how does that impact the human spirit? What will it do to survive? What does it need to actually evolve?
I’m sure some of you may have seen the documentaries The Work and Unlocked: A Jail Experiment that share new ways and experiments within the US prison systems to help incarcerated people evolve during their time behind bars. Things like group therapy, unlocking the cell doors, giving more time to communicate with family members, and responsibility to create supportive community in the prison. I also remember reading one of the Anastasia books (which some of you might know) where she shares an even more radical vision in Russia of incarnated people being given barren land cordoned off with full security and surrounding fences, but with the opportunity to build a new life from the ground up, growing food for the prison and surrounding community, and having something to contribute to that is creative, gives back, and evolves their life skills. Seems like a much better use of taxpayer money. I’m not sure we’re quite there yet, but it begs the question what is needed now? Where can we start?
The Vedic perspective is that all change in life begins with a shift in consciousness. This is why meditation is the foundation for bringing us into right action. But those who really need meditation may not have access.
The Light Inside Meditation Course, North Dakota State Penitentiary, Feb 2024
This is why Joh and The Light Inside exist. In this episode we talk about Joh’s journey of coming to teach Vedic meditation in prisons. How did she get there? What is it like? What stories of transformation has she witnessed? What challenges has she faced? Towards the end we really get into the living of dharma and seva (self-less service), how to live in alignment with your true Self, trust and surrender, and the huge shift that takes place when you let go and allow life to move through you.
I hope you enjoy listening to this episode, and please check out the resources below or in the podcast show notes for everything we talk about - including receiving The Light Inside newsletters with stories of transformation from incarcerated meditators.
Laura x
Resources.
Follow Joh @thelightinsidemeditation on Instagram
Subscribe to The Light Inside newsletters for wonderful stories of transformation
Donate to The Light Inside to support the teaching of Vedic meditation in prisons
Watch online
The Project on Channel 10 interviewing Joh on The Light Inside's meditation program in the North Dakota State Penitentiary
Joh named New Yorker of the Week March 2024 for The Light Inside's program in Rikers Island jail (camera work was very restricted in Rikers Island)
Dhamma Bros - Meditation program in Donaldson prison, Alabama
Doing Time, Doing Vipassana - Meditation program in New Delhi's Tihar prison
The Work - Set in Folsom State Prison, incarcerated men and men from outside prison together undergo four days of intensive group therapy, revealing an intimate and powerful portrait of authentic human transformation that transcends what we think of as rehabilitation
Unlocked: A Jail Experiment - A social experiment where incarcerated men are given increased autonomy in hopes of creating a community-driven atmosphere and deterring future criminal behaviour
God Save Texas: Hometown prison - Richard Linklater documentary
Step Inside the Circle - Those who experience the Compassion Trauma Circle and learn about Adverse Childhood Experiences and the symptoms of trauma, feel a sense of relief, self-forgiveness and community support
Read People Magazine Article - Only in New York: Australian Writer Becomes Dog Sitter for New York Inmate. Joh’s story of meeting her dog the first week she moved to New York.
Joh Jarvis
