Is Langata womens prison the world’s gentlest prison

At Kenya’s only maximum-security prison for women, conditions are so benign that inmates do yoga with their guards.

The Toronto Star, NAIROBI—Four female prisoners, in loose uniforms like hospital gowns, but striped in a comically apt manner, squat on the grass peeling and chopping vegetables with 15-centimetre knives.

Next to them, their guard also chops vegetables — and chats.

The women are inmates at Kenya’s only maximum-security prison for women, located on the outskirts of the capital Nairobi.

There are close to 1,000 prisoners here, from murderers on death row to petty criminals, but the security doesn’t feel very maximal: the women are wielding blades and only a flimsy barbed wire fence, a metal gate and a jolly guard separate convicts from the outside world.

To enter the prison, there are no bag checks or metal detectors, and phones are not confiscated. There are close to 1,000 women here, from murderers on death row to drug dealers, armed robbers and petty thieves.

Yet, conditions at the facility are so good that the harsh discipline once meted out by wardens has become mostly redundant.

Some of the prisoners have young children and a daycare centre for infants was recently opened.

Inmates who agree to undergo testing — and are found to be HIV-positive — are offered psychological support and medical treatment.

And yoga classes.

When the teacher arrived on a recent day she immediately took up a knife and started chopping carrots.

“Whatever we do together is good: chopping vegetables, cooking ugali , doing yoga,” says Anita Njeri, a 22-year-old slip of a woman with three piercings in her right ear and cornrows with bright yellow extensions.

Five years ago, Njeri was an acrobat, then she discovered the Africa Yoga Project , a non-profit that seeks to spread yoga across the continent and train African teachers.

Yoga has proved transformative for Njeri — “It pays my rent, puts food on my table and means I can save for my son’s school fees” — and she hopes it might help the inmates, too.

Njeri has been teaching yoga at the Lang’ata prison for three years. While it won’t get them out of jail, it can make their lives a little better. “It helps them to relax, to make them strong and to bring them together.”

Among the regular students are Jennifer Oduol, a 49-year-old mother of four serving 11 years for drug trafficking, Josephine Mwangi, who stole a cow, and Joyce Wanja, 44, who faces life in prison for an armed carjacking.

As yoga mats are laid out on the cement floor of the building’s veranda, the women, still in their prison uniforms, limber up, then sit cross-legged or on their heels, ready for the class to begin.

“I have been doing yoga since it came here,” said Oduol. “It has done good for me. Sometimes in prison you get stressed, you don’t have anything to do, you are just idle. It has helped my mind as well as my body.”

For now, the Africa Yoga Project is only involved with one prison, but there are hopes for expansion.

And the yoga isn’t just for the inmates: the guards — or “madams” as they are known — join in, too. “Being in prison torments people’s minds, even the madams,” said Oduol.

“We are like sisters even though they are the madams,” added Mwangi.

Some of the poses require pairing up. It is not unusual to see guards assisting inmates or inmates massaging guards.

Cpl. Christabel Abwaku, for one, is a big fan. “There was a time I used to have a big tummy but now it is gone.”