Bound to Be Free ─ The Liberating Power of Prison Yoga

Bound to be Free: The Liberating Power of Prison Yoga illustrates how yoga can be and is being used in prisons as a powerful method of prisoner reform and rehabilitation. The book is grounded in the Integral Yoga teachings of Sri Swami Satchidananda, who was a renowned yoga master, a spiritual guide to thousands of people worldwide, and one of the first yoga teachers to bring the timeless teachings of yoga into U.S. prisons. Through talks that Swami Satchidananda gave in several prisons, from interviews with other yoga teachers who have taught and are teaching in prisons, with a look at some highly successful prison yoga programs that are being carried out in the United States and abroad, and with personal stories of prisoners whose study and practice of yoga has brought peace and self-transformation, Bound to be Free offers a wide-ranging view of the benefits of yoga to incarcerated populations and demonstrates how those benefits impact society in general.

Rev. Sandra Kumari de Sachy has been studying and practicing Integral Yoga since 1980. She became a certified Integral Yoga teacher in 1981 and has been teaching Hatha Yoga, meditation, and yoga philosophy ever since. She has a masterAEs degree in English literature and a doctorate in English education/language arts and has taught both English and yoga in the United States and in France. One of the most transforming experiences in her life was teaching creative writing and yoga to inmates at the Buckingham Correctional Center in Virginia.