Doing Time Doing Vipassana - Full official version
Why Hacker News recommends it
Cited as evidence that meditation can work as prison reform.
What it is
A documentary about Vipassana meditation in India's Tihar Prison, led by Kiran Bedi, the prison's Inspector General. It follows inmates who went through the courses and the changes they describe.
Recommended by 1 HN commenters across 1 different months, 2018 to 2020.
What Hacker News said
Recommends slipperyp · 2018-04 · on “Vipassana for Hackers [pdf]”
There is more information on the method from this documentary Doing Time, Doing Vipassana: [this video] It documents the use of Vipassana as a reform measure at a harsh prison in India and traces the impacts it had on some of the inmates there.
Cites abledon · 2019-01 · on “California inmate takes unlikely path to freedom: podcasting”
mandatory meditation: [this video] for someone to just 'sit' and think about their thoughts for 10 days straight without talking, is HELL for a criminal. they are forced to confront reality, or at least their subjective version of it.
Cites vekker · 2020-03 · on “What it’s like to spend four and a half years in solitary confinement (2015)”
Sounds like hell, the way he describes it. However, if you'd take those hellish elements away & ensure silence, I think long solitary confinement might work if you teach people how to meditate. That's just not being done enough in prisons right now. See "Doing Time, Doing Vipassana" [this video] EDIT: I know this is probably a controversial opinion to non-meditators, but if you're going to downvote, at least provide an argument for why you don't agree.