RIP? Did Farrokh die or something?
From: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com [mailto:FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of jpgillam Sent: Thursday, June 28, 2012 2:51 PM To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Subject: [FairfieldLife] RIP Farrokh Re: Enlightened Sentencing Project article --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com <mailto:FairfieldLife%40yahoogroups.com> , "Patrick Gillam" <jpgillam@...> wrote: > > from The Riverfront Times > http://tinyurl.com/ejsah > > Peace and Punishment > St. Louis judges turn to Transcendental Meditation to rehab convicted felons > > By Kristen Hinman > > Published Mar 8, 2006 > > > Keith Mason used to begin every day with a dime bag of marijuana. Nowadays, the north > St. Louis man rises early and meditates upon the shaggy brown carpet at the foot of his > bed. > > "It takes me through the whole day," exults the 43-year-old father of six. "Everyone looks > at me now and they see a glowing man." > > Mason peddled marijuana in his Fairground Park neighborhood from the time he was > thirteen years old. He didn't become a full-time pusher until he turned 30, around the > time he got caught in gang crossfire and lost his lower left leg. Still Mason kept at it. > Selling drugs was more lucrative, and less painful, he explains, than a nine-to-five job. > > "I could stand out there for only three hours and make five hundred dollars." > > In March 2002, Mason was arrested for possession of more than 35 grams of a controlled > substance. He pleaded guilty in St. Louis Circuit Court and was placed on probation for > two years. > > "And like a knucklehead, I went right back up there a month later and got caught again," > he laments. "I went to prison for a whole year." > > Upon his release in 2004, Mason set about satisfying the probation requirements from his > first offense. Along with a twelve-step drug program and GED classes, St. Louis Circuit > Court Judge Philip Heagney ordered Mason to the enigmatic-sounding Enlightened > Sentencing Project to learn Transcendental Meditation. > > "I'm a dude that's stubborn, bullheaded, and when I went to that first meeting, I wanted > nothing to do with it," Mason admits. "But meditation saved my life, man. I swear to you." > > Transcendental Meditation, or TM, is a stress-reduction technique developed 50 years ago > by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, an Indian spiritual leader. Popularized by the Beatles in the > 1960s, the teachings of the Maharishi are now followed by more than six million > practitioners worldwide. > > Twice a day, they sit with their eyes closed and repeat a silent mantra for twenty minutes, > entering a state where the mind is alert, while the body reaches a relaxing realm deeper > than sleep. The practice has been medically proven to enhance mental health, and reduce > hypertension and blood pressure. > > TM has gained traction in the past ten years, with several U.S. schools reporting that > students are less violent and more focused after meditating. Last year, the movie and > television director David Lynch founded the Hollywood-based David Lynch Foundation for > Consciousness-based Education and World Peace, with plans to underwrite university > classes in TM and provide startup funds to elementary schools looking to establish > programs. > > Using TM to rehabilitate convicted felons has proved a much harder sell. Bombay-born > Farrokh Anklesaria, a British-trained barrister, took up the crusade in 1980 and, in April > 1996 began teaching the program in St. Louis the only city in the nation offering this kind > of treatment for convicted felons. > > "The technique is not religious, but I do have a missionary zeal about it," says Anklesaria. > "I don't care whether a guy is a murderer, a wifebeater, whatever. I teach him the method. > Ultimately, you have a man whose physiology is incapable of crime." > > Anklesaria, who learned TM from the Maharishi, established programs in prisons in Sri > Lanka, India and Senegal, at the guru's behest. In the early 1990s he began lobbying U.S. > corrections officials. > > TM wasn't completely unknown stateside. In fact, 150 inmates at California's Folsom State > Prison meditated in the late 1970s. Researchers at the Fairfield, Iowa-based Maharishi > University of Management later tracked the parolees and found that their risk of > reoffending was reduced by 44 percent. > > Still Anklesaria failed to sway state prison directors in six different states. "When I pointed > out to the California wardens that for every dollar invested in this program they would > save twelve dollars, their answer was, 'Where do I get the one dollar now?'" > > Anklesaria's fate changed when he introduced St. Louis Circuit Court Judge David Mason > (no relation to Keith Mason) to TM at a 1995 conference in St. Louis. > > "When I became a judge there was one thing that weighed heavily on my mind," recalls > Judge Mason. "How is it that I grew up in the same severe impoverished circles that some > people coming in front of me grew up under, but I was able to deal with them, get through > school, and to where I am? I didn't have any extras. I didn't even have a father. I had a > mother with an alcoholism problem. What was the difference?" > > Anklesaria teaches TM to felons whose offenses include drug possession, assault, child > abuse and armed robbery. The two-hour classes, which begin with ten minutes of yoga, > are held on Tuesday and Thursday evenings at the Centenary United Methodist Church in > downtown St. Louis. More than 250 probationers have graduated from the 26-session > program. > > "If we had the proper funding, we could touch thousands more," says Anklesaria. "Already, > we have a couple hundred people on our waiting list." > > Like many rehabilitation projects, the Enlightened Sentencing Project has no funds to > conduct recidivism studies. (Anklesaria charges $200 for the class, but operates primarily > from private donations.) Neither Anklesaria nor the courts keep track of how many > offenders sentenced to the program failed to complete it. > > Anecdotal testimony from judges, probation officers and graduates is overwhelmingly > positive. > > "When I got into this class, all the cigarettes, the weed, the alcohol, everything disappeared > from my life, and it wasn't even conscious," says graduate Tyron Henry. "Suddenly you > realize you're watching a football game and you don't have a beer next to you, and you're > like, wait a minute something's happened here!" > > Says Mason: "Of the more than a hundred I've sentenced, maybe three or four have come > back in front of me." > > Today five state and federal judges in Missouri sentence probationers to the Enlightened > Sentencing Project, which has also been embraced by State Supreme Court Justice Michael > Wolff. > > Can TM even rehabilitate murderers? > > "It would be extraordinary to say we could fix that kind of person," replies Wolff. "But at > the lower levels of crime, we really ought to be thinking about how to fix people, how to > fix ourselves, because sooner or later the people committing these crimes are going to > come back into our community." > > If Anklesaria had his way, the Missouri Department of Corrections would allow him to > teach the method in a maximum-security prison. "It would become absolutely apparent as > night is from day that the meditating population would show significant improvements in > recidivism." > > It's a bold wager, says Beth Huebner, assistant professor of criminology at the University > of Missouri-St. Louis. "That would probably not play too well. Taxpayers want criminals to > be punished." > > TM devotee Keith Mason, who finished the class last August, says he'd be the first to help > Anklesaria teach, should the program ever get enough resources to expand. > > "I learned patience," says Mason. "My temper ain't bad no more, and I can do things I > couldn't do, like get up and walk. I can walk without my cane. I don't even take any more > pain medication for my leg." > > http://tinyurl.com/ejsah > > > Farrokh & Ruffina Anklesaria > TESP Directors > TESP Administrative Office > 202 Tiffin Ave > Ferguson, MO 63135 > Tel: 314 521 4390 > Visit our website: www.tesp.org >
