As yoga becomes increasingly popular, yoga classes are being held everywhere, it seems. And now they are taking root in one unlikely place in Belfast, where their lessons may be particularly valuable.
On a recent Friday evening, in a large basement room lined with floor mats, Michelle Moschkau is teaching a yoga class over the thrum of a nearby boiler.
"Come to both feet, hip distance apart, and find a focal point on the ground," she instructs. "And fix your gaze, and let it be strong. Step back with the left foot, hands on hips."
It would be like any other yoga class, with this distinction: Moschkau is teaching inmates.
"And then imagine a straight line from your heel to the top of your head. Bend your front knee, and then shift your torso forward, and the back leg comes up, arms extend," she says, pausing. "And then check in with your breath."
For a year, Moschkau has been teaching this class at the Maine Coastal Regional Re-entry Center, a facility designed to reduce recidivism among criminals at risk for re-offending.
Taking the class tonight is Tarik Gilbert.
"I think yoga actually helps in all aspects of your life, athletes use it, martial artists use it," Gilbert says. "For me, it helps me relax, it helps me center myself, it helps me to let go of some of my outside concerns. It gives focus, but also relaxes me."
Gilbert, who is serving an 18-month sentence for drug trafficking and Oxycodone possession, says he also hopes to take some community yoga classes, and perhaps attend a meditation retreat.
Brandon Gushee has just arrived at the re-entry center, and he is taking the class for the first time. Before going to jail, he was taking some yoga classes at the Rockport YMCA.
"I was actually stoked to find out that they had it here, and to have the opportunity to continue taking classes while being incarcerated," he says.
Gushee, who earned a four-month sentence for elver fishing violations, feels yoga has a broad range of benefits.
"Yoga is one of those unique disciplines, I guess you could say, that sort of incorporates a lot of different aspects," Gushee says. "It has a physical component, but it also has a mental component and even a spiritual component. So I would say as far as overall well-being, doing yoga is a really good use of your time."
"I know some people think yoga is probably a strange thing for us to offer; at the same time, yoga is one of those things that, again and again through studies, proves to reduce the return to prison," says Jerome Weiner, the program manager of the re-entry center.
"I think it is pretty obvious - if we can teach a guy to control his emotions, if we can teach him to learn be calm, or find his own calmness, if we can teach them to center themselves, all things practices of yoga, he is just going to do better when he leaves here," Weiner says.
Over the past year, Moschkau has taught more than 35 people. She says yoga's lessons are transferable.
"If you are balancing on one foot, and you start to wobble, things can happen - like your breath can speed up or your mind will start to go kind of crazy, and that's kind of a good metaphor for what might happen in life if you are off balance," Moschkau says. "You might not be breathing really well, you might not be thinking clearly, you might have a little sense of panic about you. So the more you can practice paying attention to what happens in your body, the more you can kind of cultivate the skill to be aware off the mat, and know what to do about it."
The re-entry center is not alone. Moschkau took her inspiration from a similar project in Vermont. And more prison yoga classes are emerging nationwide.