On her 40th birthday, Lisa Newman was beginning an 18-month prison sentence for dealing drugs. Today, aged 52 and living in Gloucestershire, she’s a qualified addiction recovery coach, a public speaker, and a business owner. But back then, life felt completely out of control.

While in prison, Lisa came across The Prison Phoenix Trust, a charity that supports people in custody through the tools of yoga, meditation and spiritual connection. Since 1988, the charity has helped thousands of people in prisons across the UK and Ireland find calm, hope and self-belief in the most difficult circumstances.

Hear Lisa’s story on Life After Prison podcast

Lisa reached out to the charity and not long after, she heard from Caroline, a volunteer mentor. What started with a letter turned into a lifeline; made possible in part by people who leave gifts in Wills. Caroline offered encouragement and guidance by post, along with yoga books and CDs tailored to Lisa’s situation, all funded through the support that legacy giving helps to provide.

“She helped me practise yoga and meditation in my tiny cell. But more than that, she gave me emotional support,” Lisa says. “I could write about my guilt, my shame – and someone actually listened. It was the first time I felt heard and cared for in years.”

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By The Prison Phoenix Trust CEO Selina Sasse

At the Prison Phoenix Trust, the first half of 2025 has been a time of quiet transformation and steady growth, rooted always in the shared strength of our community.

At our recent Away Day, the depth of connection across The PPT community was powerfully felt. We took time to reflect on how our small staff team has grown, not only in number but in spirit. With skill and care, existing staff have welcomed new colleagues, nurturing the distinctive and deeply held culture of the Trust. Their efforts have brought fresh energy to our work, energy that is already being felt by the people we serve in prisons and beyond.

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The Prison Phoenix Trust’s new Impact Report  describes a growth in demand for yoga and meditation in prisons at a time of huge challenge for prison staff – and the people their care. Continue Reading

For Mental Health Awareness Week 2025, The Prison Phoenix Trust launched Give it 10 — a simple, effective yoga and mindfulness challenge for people in custody. The idea? Just 10 minutes a day for 7 days to support mental wellbeing.

Two thirds of people serving prison sentences report mental health struggles. According to an NHS study, more than half have self-harmed. And tragically, in 2025 nearly 100 died by suicide.

The relationship between mental health and crime is complex, but evidence suggests that improving mental health both in prisno and on release is associated with reduced probability or reoffending.

The Prison Phoenix Trust’s yoga challenge for mental health in 2025 was a hit, with 124 prisons and justice organisations across the UK and Ireland taking part. Prisoners and staff alike found it easy to access and genuinely helpful — especially for those new to yoga.

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The Prison Phoenix Trust (PPT) continues to build its support for people in UK and Irish prisons, offering yoga and meditation as transformative tools for rehabilitation and mental well-being. With the recent addition of courses at HMP Liverpool and HMP Hollesley Bay, regular weekly yoga sessions are now available in 52 prisons. Continue Reading

This month The Prison Phoenix Trust was invited to contribute to a round-table discussion in the Houses of Parliament aimed at shaping impactful policy for women in the prison, hosted by the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Sport and Physical Activity in the Criminal Justice System. Joining our yoga lead Victoria and prison yoga teacher Sandra was Lisa, who writes eloquently here about her experience of yoga in prison.

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When big ideas have come and gone

There is no need to grieve,

It’s not about great speeches

It’s about the way you breathe.

Excerpt from ‘In-exhale’ by Benjamin Zephaniah for The Prison Phoenix Trust

12 April 2025 will be the first ever Benjamin Zephaniah Day to celebrate the life and legacy of ‘the people’s laureate’. It’s being marked by a Festival of Rhythm, Unity and Revolution, which will be held at Brunel University, where Benjamin served as Professor of Creative Writing. The PPT will be present alongside a host of other organisations who worked on causes dear to the late poet’s heart.

Here we look back on our relationship with the beloved poet, writer, actor and activist, and honour his memory.  Continue Reading

Do you have a passion for helping prisons support the rehabilitation of people in their care – and their reintegration into society?  Prison yoga charity The Prison Phoenix Trust is seeking new trustees to join our Board.

Who we are

We are an award-winning yoga charity in the UK and Ireland, with 37 years’ experience sharing meditation and yoga with people in prison. We offer personal support to prisoners and prison staff through teaching, mentoring, peer-support and specialist resources. We work with people of any faith or Continue Reading

Celebrity chef and businessman Levi Roots offers advice to people trying to stay healthy in prison, drawing on his own experience of serving time inside.

If you have ever wanted to look and feel amazing, both in mind, body and spirit, I am here to tell you that it is possible to achieve it. Perhaps you have had doubts, lack of confidence or simply unable to focus and maintain an exercise program until you can see and feel the true benefits. Continue Reading

We spent a day with Emma, who teaches yoga and meditation to particularly vulnerable children aged 15-18 in a young offenders institution. The boys have various and complex needs, including neurodiversity, learning disabilities, special educational needs, behavioural problems, and lots of trauma. Some are serving long sentences of 15 years or more.

Emma arrives with a big bag of yoga mats at a block is made up of 4 wings, each with 12 cells down one side, doors opening out onto a carpeted communal area with a couple of sofas, tables and chairs from which windows look out onto the grounds, including a pond. There’s a staff office on each wing.

Being key-trained, the yoga teacher is able to move around freely, greeting prison officers, staff and the young offenders. She moves from wing to wing to see who’s available for yoga.

On the first wing we visit, officers ask us to come back later as “things have kicked off over lunch and there’s rice and peas everywhere.” At another wing a young person, Daniel*, was waiting with his mat ready for a yoga class, but staff asked us to come back later as there was an incident underway in one of the cells overlooking the yoga space, where staff were trying to ‘talk down’ a young person in the midst of a mental health crisis. Continue Reading