At first glance, jails and prisons may not seem like the best environment for a mindfulness program. The noise level alone can be unsettling, let alone the windowless, cinder block walls.

But John Eby turned that notion on its head. Instead, he asked, what better place could there be for a mindfulness class?

In 2014, Eby, a psychotherapist who has worked for many years with Nevada County’s incarcerated and mentally ill, introduced an eight-week pilot mindfulness program in the jail at the Wayne Brown Correctional Facility in Nevada City. Initially, 14 inmates opted to participate in the course, which was designed to equip students with the tools to alleviate a variety of common conditions, such as depression and anxiety.

“We wanted to look at ways to give the inmates support, tools that would benefit their mental health,” said Eby. “They were leery of the mindfulness class at first, then the word started to get out because the results were so strong.”

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