Benefits of Maharishi
Transcendental Meditation program®
for Correctional Officers

"With TM I am able to dissipate a great deal of stress without the aid of alcohol or drugs. I am able to react more quickly and with a clearer understanding of situations and alternatives. My social and family life has improved."

--William McMullen, Correctional Lieutenant, San Quentin, U.S.A.

---

REDUCED STRESS

A meta-analysis of published research studies comparing Maharishi's Transcendental Meditation to eyes-closed rest found that those practicing Transcendental Meditation have significantly lower baseline levels of respiration rate, heart rate, spontaneous skin resistance responses, and plasma lactate prior to meditation than do comparison subjects prior to rest. This profound restfulness is the basis for stable, dynamic activity.

Ref: American Psychologist 42 (1987): 879-881.

A study of health insurance statistics on over two thousand people practicing Maharishi's Transcendental Meditation over a five-year period found that participants--when compared to matched controls--consistently needed much less medical treatment in all sixteen disease categories. During Transcendental Meditation the innumerable self-repair mechanisms of the body restore balance to its various systems, resulting in increased vitality and resistance to stress and disease.

Ref: Psychosomatic Medicine 49 (1987): 493-507.

Prison work is regarded as the most stressful of occupations--even more so than police work. Prison personnel have alarmingly higher stress levels than the normal population, resulting in greater cigarette, drug, and alcohol use; higher sick leave rates; higher divorce rates (often twice the national average); and higher frequency of heart disease, tension headaches, backaches, ulcers, diabetes, obesity, and other serious psychophysiological problems.1 Moreover, the life expectancy of prison personnel is seriously reduced. Recent studies of correctional stress indicate that those working in prisons live an average of sixteen years less than the life span enjoyed by the general population.2

Two recent Scandinavian studies have identified a number of the factors causing high stress levels for prison personnel, particularly correctional officers.3

For these and other reasons, correctional officers have low job satisfaction, a high turnover rate, and suffer from the stress-related psychophysiological problems mentioned above.

The implementation of Maharishi's Integrated System of Rehabilitation on all levels--administrators, officers, and inmates--effectively addresses all of these problems. It relieves the stress in the environment by relieving the stress in the individual. Practice of the Transcendental Meditation technique produces a profound and rejuvenating state of restful alertness in mind and body. This unique state of restful alertness removes deeply rooted stress from the system. With less stress, a person becomes more calm, and thereby naturally acts in a capable, responsible, and harmonious manner.

Scientific validation: The scientific research findings highlighted on these pages (together with hundreds of other studies) validate the profound effectiveness of Maharishi's Integrated System of Rehabilitation in eliminating stress. Relief from the symptoms of stress improves the sleep, mental and physical health, marital and family relations, and working conditions of prison personnel. It is recommended that the spouses and family members of correctional officers also participate in the TM program. In this way they will provide a supportive and harmonious atmosphere at home and enjoy a stress-free existence themselves. The TM courses provided by Maharishi International University for correctional officers effectively deal with all aspects of occupational stress undergone by prison personnel.

1) Correctional Officers: Power, Pressure and Responsibility (American Correctional Association, 1983).

2) STRESS MANAGEMENT for Correctional Officers and their Families (American Correctional Association, 1984), xi-xii.

3) A. Härenstam, Prison Personnel--working conditions, stress and health; a study of 2 000 prison employees in Sweden (Stockholm, 1989).

Related Topics: