The Prison Phoenix Trust

Beginnings Of The Trust

In 1986 Ann Wetherall, our founder, was involved in a research project investigating spiritual experiences arising from imprisonment. This involved her in correspondence with many prisoners.

Stemming from these letters, Ann discovered that there was a spiritual hunger that was not being met from other sources. It occurred to her that being shut in cells for much of the day could provide prisoners with an opportunity to turn a negative situation into a positive one.

Ann believed that if prisoners could be introduced to disciplines like meditation and yoga, and supported in their solitary efforts, they might come to feel differently about themselves and form a new understanding of the relationship between the world of spirit and the world of matter.

The Trust was registered as a charity in July 1988, supported initially by The Princes Trust and The Gulbenkian Foundation. Our work is now funded by other Trusts and individuals, and is entirely dependent on donations.

"All the good I do can't make up for the wrong I done but is as good a place as any to start. Meditation is a help. I'm teaching an inmate who is one who cuts himself when things go wrong with him. It's slow, no use giving him those breathing exercises because he's not so bright. So today I sat face to face and told him to follow my breathing. We made it to 10 minutes before he lost it. But the slowest way is the fastest."

... a prisoner at HMP Frankland