In the Netflix series Orange is the new Black, a handful of inmates flock to a free yoga class that's led by a California hippie who is serving some time.

And now, at the Santa Barbara County Jail, it would seem that life has started to imitate cinematic art.

The Prison Yoga Project was kicked off about two years ago by a local certified yoga instructor.  And for an hour each week, class participants are given a chance to mentally escape from their confines.

The instructor, Ginny Kunh, has been practicing yoga for more than two decades, she said, although it wasn't until she enrolled in a graduate program at a  local university that she decided she wanted to give back.

Finding inner peace

The class is available to low and medium-security detainees only, and about a dozen woman have started to participate.   Kuhn spends her time leading her students through poses, meditation and visualization exercises, and the results have been quite positive.

The inmates say they're touched by the kindness.

One woman said that doing yoga has taught her that she can be successful at something if she puts her mind to it, and that not all aspects of her life have to be negative.

Others say it's the one thing they look forward to every week.

Evolving over time

The class has reportedly undergone some positive transformations since it began. Today, for example, two volunteers teach alongside Kunh, and they have even started to offer classes for male inmates as well.

That instructor is a recovering alcoholic, and since many of the incarcerated men have addition issues of their own, it's allowed them to develop sense of kinship, and has shown the inmates that there are tools that can be used to overcome battles with substance abuse.

That class is more strongly focused on giving participants a physical workout, he said, because men tend to have a shorter attention span.

The mens' instructor said he hopes to expand the program and is currently in the process of trying to get an additional Saturday class approved at the Main Jail.

Kudos all the way around

The instructors say they've not only seen the positive impact that yoga is having on the inmates, they're hearing about it as well.

Yoga helps relieve stress, they said, which can help inmates stay calm and manage anger.  It's also been proven to help improve decision making and has even been shown to help reduce chronic pain.

Whether widespread jail yoga can help reduce recidivism rates has yet to be proven, but at this point, the idea of expanding these types of programs at other facilities throughout the US certainly can't hurt.