A GOVERNMENT grant has been given to La Moye prison to fund additional activities – including yoga and Wim Hof exercises – to ‘help prisoners re-enter society as better individuals’.
The Releasing Better Neighbours programme at HMP La Moye has recently been awarded the grant as part of the Government’s Connect Me: Connecting Our Communities grant scheme.
Grants of up to £5,000 are available for projects which will increase opportunities for Jersey residents to participate in arts or physical activities.
The scheme aims to address the effects of Covid-19 and related isolation on the physical and mental health of Islanders.
The prison’s recent grant is one of 88 different projects which have been supported by the scheme since being set up in 2022.
In a blog on the government website, group director of Local Services Paul McGinnety explained that after receiving the grant, the programme was able to ‘introduce additional activities to support the long-term rehabilitation of prisoners’ by ‘bringing in external agencies to support them’.
He explained: ‘These have included activities aimed at helping with supporting prisoners’ mental and physical health.
‘They have included yoga and the Wim Hoff method, proven to help support people with the management of stress, anxiety and pain.
‘Even in the short time these activities have been introduced prisoners have reported positive responses.’
Created by Dutchman Wim Hof, the method involves breathing exercises and cold exposure.
Freeze the Fear with Wim Hof aired on BBC One last year, with the British reality TV series featuring celebrities competing in sub-zero conditions in the Italian mountains.
A video on the government’s YouTube channel explains how the programme works, and shows yoga mats rolled out in the gym and a pool being filled with cold water.
