Three times a week, Robbie Norris, a lean, 50-year-old yoga teacher, hops into his 1992 Volvo and heads to his class in Richmond, Va. past barbed wire and armed guards to a windowless room where a dozen women, scarred and tattooed, are waiting on donated yoga mats.

When many states have cut their wellness and education programs for inmates, citing cost and political pressure, some wardens are looking for a low-cost, low-risk way for inmates to reflect on their crimes, improve their fitness and cope with the stress of overcrowded prison life are turning toward yoga.

(READ the story, w/ photos, in the New York Times)