How yoga became prisoner's 'best friend'

"No matter what happened outside my cell door, they couldn't take that away from me."

A former inmate has opened up about the transformative experience he had thanks to The Prison Phoenix Trust in Oxford, which supports rehabilitation through meditation and yoga.

Paul, who came across it while on remand, said yoga had become "a coping mechanism" for him.

Imam Monawar Hussain MBE, former High Sheriff of Oxford and trust consultant, said he loved reading about the impact the classes have had on people in prison.

Paul was facing a long prison sentence when he was assigned a yoga course through the trust.

Following a diagnosis of spinal arthritis, he had been told he could not train as he usually did, so started doing yoga mainly "for the physical side of it".

"It gave me body awareness, so any injuries and pains that I got, I learned to cope with through the yoga," he said. "It became my best friend."

Speaking to BBC Radio Oxford, Paul said yoga had also helped him deal with difficult situations and emotions.

He remembered an incident when he had been forced to wait before being let into a room to practice.

He said he had briefly given up and left but had decided to return and continue waiting for the guard.

"That's what yoga gave me," he said, "it gave me the control to go back."

Paul has since taught inmates himself and has opened his own studio.

"If you were to give me my yoga mat and set me free on a hill, anywhere in the world, with nothing else, I'm a happy man."

Selina Sasse, director of the trust, said the approach was established in the 1980s by founder Ann Wetherall.

"She had grown up in India and she knew how helpful yoga and meditation were, so she thought 'if I could bring this to people who are in prison, it might really help them change their lives.'"

Ms Sasse, a yoga teacher herself, described the attendees as "people who have had a lot of experience of trauma, and really led very difficult and chaotic lives, from childhood mostly".

She said feedback after the classes included: "It's the first time I actually slept", "I forgot I was in prison" and "I really want to live my life differently now".

Ms Sasse said the majority of attendees were adult men who "never, ever thought yoga's for them".

"Actually, what brings them often is their peers... or people come to it because they're stuck on their wing, stuck in their cell, and it's just an opportunity to get out.

"But then they find it so helpful, they go back and encourage others."

Ms Sasse said Mr Hussain had been really important for the charity and has helped it "engage with people in a deeper and richer way across different faith groups".

Mr Hussain, who is also founder of the community-building charity The Oxford Foundation, said he recommended the trust's newsletter during his guest editor appearance on BBC Radio Oxford's Breakfast Show with Sophie Law.

"[It] comes through regularly and it has a section on yoga moves - I try that and it's really effective.

"I also love reading letters from people who are living in prison and the impact that [a yoga class] has had on them."

You can follow BBC Oxfordshire on Facebook, X (Twitter), or Instagram.