Digging Deep is a multi-level public health resilience building initiative that I designed as part of my coursework for my summer class "Building Resilience in Individuals and Communities for Public Health" taught by Dr. Brittney Dixon at the University of Florida. This initiative seeks to cultivate resilience by improving the mental health of the women at the Debra K. Johnson Rehabilitation Center in Nashville, Tennessee.
Mental health is a serious problem among the inmates in our country. According to the Vera Institute of Justice, a premier criminal justice research and advocacy non-profit, mental illness is one of the most significant problems facing women in prison today (Subramanian, 2016). In 2006, the U.S. Department of Justice found that 31% of incarcerated women have a serious mental illness, while only 15% of men report the same (James, 2006). Speculation as to why this gender imbalance exists is outside the scope of this project. However, the connection between trauma and mental illness can begin to paint a picture. In 2009, Steadman et al found that 86% of women in prison have been victims of sexual assault and 77% have experienced intimate partner violence. This evidence indicates the widespread presence of lived traumatic experiences within the walls of our prisons as well as the pervasive nature of mental health issues and mental illness among the women inside them.
The Debra K. Johnson Rehabilitation Center (DJRC), formerly known as the Tennessee Prison for Women, is the primary prison for female offenders in the state of Tennessee. It currently accommodates custody levels ranging from minimum to maximum and serves as the diagnostic center for women entering the criminal justice system in Tennessee (TDOC, 2020). The DJRC is already home to a multitude of educational and vocational programs seeking to meet the rehabilitative needs of those inside. These programs include adult basic education, high school equivalency testing, computer application and literacy, culinary arts, and career management to name a few. This array of offerings leads me to believe that this institution is open and poised to receive programming like the one I outline here. I believe this culture of valuing rehabilitative over punitive responses to inmates will provide fertile soil for this resilience building initiative.
Digging Deep seeks to cultivate resilience at the individual, relationship, and community levels of the Social Ecological Model, as outlined by the Center for Disease Control (CDC, 2021). This program addresses the mental health of the women at DJRC through three distinct but interconnected programs.
At the individual level, a Meditation and Movement class will be offered weekly and will incorporate a trauma-informed approach to yoga, mindfulness, and embodiment. The instruction will provide coping skills and embodiment practices that aim to decrease symptoms of post traumatic stress disorder and increase resilience. A study conducted by Morone et al in 2012 found that mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) decreased stress, anxiety, aggression and depression and improved emotional regulation, self-awareness and self-esteem, establishing itself as an incredibly helpful tool in improving mental health and building resilience. Alongside mindfulness and meditation, this class will also focus on movement and embodiment. In 2016, Nolan conducted a narrative review of trauma-sensitive yoga for women with PTSD for the peer-reviewed medical journal Complementary Therapies in Clinical Practice. This review found that disassociation, or separating yourself from the experience of your body, is incredibly common amongst individuals with PTSD. Embodiment, or the practice of bringing the mind and the body back together, is a key first step in building resilience and healing from traumatic experiences (Nolan, 2006). This section of the class will be modeled in part after the Florida based Yoga4Change program designed and created by Kathryn Thomas, which seeks to build resilience through embodied practice (Thomas, 2021). Through evidence-based and purpose-driven curriculum, Yoga4Change “achieves lasting and demonstrative change for veterans, incarcerated individuals, youth, and people living with mental health conditions” (Yoga4Change, n.d.). I see incredible potential to use this kind of programming with the chosen population at the Debra K. Johnson Rehabilitation Center.
At the relationship level of the Social Ecological Model, the Branching Out Community Choir will consist of members both inside and outside the prison and will use weekly rehearsals to prepare for biannual concerts. This program seeks to cultivate a sense of empowerment through the collective identity of the musical group as well as through the collaborative artistic efforts of the members to present two concerts each year. Modeled after the successful programming of the Oakdale Community Choir at the Iowa Medical Classification Center and Correctional Facility, the Branching Out Community Choir will seek to develop, enhance, and sustain relationships of the inmates with one another as well as with those coming in from the surrounding community. A study published in 2018 in the European Journal of Public Health found that group singing can ”increase positive emotions, reduce anxiety and enhance social bonding” (Williams et al, 2018).
Lastly, targeting the community level of the Social Ecological Model, Planting Seeds Community Garden will be housed on the prison complex and will utilize the efforts of inmates as well as community volunteers. Working with the community garden will provide inmates an opportunity to be outside working with their hands, an activity that has been tied to improved mental health as well as decreased recidivism rates as seen in the 2015 study by Van der Linden. One of the main benefits of the garden will be providing fresh produce for the prison cafeteria. In 2020, the criminal justice reform non-profit called Impact Justice released a six-part report exploring the inequities and troubling trends in the prison food system. This report entitled "Eating Behind Bars: Ending the Hidden Punishment of Food in Prison" found that “food served to incarcerated people and the conditions under which it is served are harmful to physical and mental health and can erode self-esteem, with immediate and long-term impacts” (Impact Justice, 2020). Eating fresh and nutritional food will improve the women’s physical health, which will in turn affect their mental health and well being. The field of nutritional psychiatry is finding that such things as mood and energy level are directly related to the quality of nutrition in our diets (Shelhub, 2020).
The garden will also provide an opportunity for the prison to partner with the local farmers market community to distribute and sell the produce, allowing the women to earn additional income to help support themselves and their families. The garden will thus serve a dual purpose of supporting them financially as well as providing good food to eat, both for themselves and for their families. Furthermore, the skills learned in the garden through the planning, planting, growing, harvesting, distributing, and selling processes will serve the inmates once they are released and return home to their families. These are skills they can continue to use to either grow their own food or develop small businesses, creating a sense of empowerment and agency.
The Digging Deep program offerings of meditation and yoga, group singing, and community gardening seek to cultivate resilience, improve mental health, and set the women of DJRC up for success when they finally leave the walls of the prison behind.
Thank you for reading!
References:
CDC. (2021, January 28). The Social Ecological Model: A framework for prevention. https://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/about/social-ecologicalmodel.html?CDC_AA_refVal=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.cdc.gov%2Fviolenceprevention%2Fpublichealthissue%2Fsocial-ecologicalmodel.html (Links to an external site.)
Impact Justice. (2020). Food in Prison. https://impactjustice.org/impact/food-in-prison/#report
James, D.J., and Glaze, L.E. (2006). Mental Health Problems of Prison and Jail Inmates. U.S. Department of Justice: Bureau of Justice Statistics, 4
Morone, N.E., Lynch, C.P., Losasso, V.J. et al. (2012). Mindfulness to Reduce Psychosocial Stress. Mindfulness, 3, 22–29. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12671-011-0076-z
Nolan, C.R. (2016). Bending without breaking: A narrative review of trauma-sensitive yoga for women with PTSD. Complementary Therapies in Clinical Practice, 24, 32-40. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ctcp.2016.05.006.
Selhub, E., (2020, March 26). Nutritional psychiatry: your brain on food. Harvard Health Publishing. https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/nutritional-psychiatry-your-brain-on-food-201511168626
Steadman, H.J. et al. (2009). Prevalence of Serious Mental Illness Among Jail Inmates. Psychiatric Services, 60(6), 761-65
Subramanian, R., Riley, K. & Swavola, E. (2016). Overlooked: Women and Jails in an Era of Reform. Vera Institute of Justice. https://www.vera.org/downloads...s-report-updated.pdf
Tennessee Department of Correction. (n.d.). Debra K. Johnson Rehabilitation Center. https://www.tn.gov/correction/...rison-for-women.html
Thomas, K. (2021). Yoga 4 Change: Teaching Resilience from Within.
Van der Linden, S. (2015). Green prison programmes, recidivism and mental health: A primer. Criminal Behavior and Mental Health, 25, 338-342. https://heinonline.org/HOL/Lan...36&id=&page=
Williams, E., Dingle, G. A., & Clift, S. (2018, July 2). A systematic review of mental health and wellbeing outcomes of group singing for adults with a mental condition. European Journal of Public Health, 8(6), 1035-1042. https://academic.oup.com/eurpub/article/28/6/1035/5048001?login=true
Yoga 4 Change. (n.d.) Home. https://www.y4c.org/
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