As they stretch their arms toward the ceiling, the men in John Schlosser's yoga class are told to focus on "bringing in the energy of the Earth through the soles of your feet."

ELYSE BUTLER / Monitor staff Tim Barry, an inmate at the New Hampshire State Prison, rolls back his head and looks up to the ceiling during a routine warm-up in the yoga class. Zoom Purchase Photos Online

For the class's members, all inmates at the state prison, drawing so much energy up through the thick layers of concrete that surround them may seem daunting. But they say the work has changed their bodies and their minds and brought them peace in a place where it is hard to find.

With more than 95 percent of all inmates expected to return to society, some experts say programs like this , in which prisoners can relieve stress and find change, are needed.

Schlosser, 62, has taught here on and off since 1975. Of the 1,400 or so men housed in the prison, five to 15 medium-security inmates gather each week for his class.

ELYSE BUTLER / Monitor staff Instructor John Schlosser demonstrates a stretch for his class in the prisonís chapel. Schlosser, 62, has been teaching yoga at the prison for most of the past 25 years. He began practicing yoga 30 years ago to help ease an injury he sustained playing rugby. Zoom Purchase Photos Online

They come dressed in dark green uniforms to the prison's chapel to find quiet beneath a wall of stained-glass windows while other inmates walk in and out of the common room or watch from a row of windows on one side.

Some come sporadically. Others are faithful yoga practitioners who have been part of the class for decades. One inmate started coming to the class in 1983. Since then, he's been released and returned to prison twice. But whenever he's in jail, he's in Schlosser's class.

"It's pretty much fairly motivated guys that are really looking for a practice that will give them, I think, some hope, some physical hope,"Schlosser said.

While other classes include meditation, Schlosser's is the only program at the prison that combines the mental, physical and spiritual aspects of yoga.

Schlosser said he has a mix-and-match method of teaching, combining mostly the flowing Kripalu and more strenuous Ashtanga yoga styles with readings and nontraditional music. During last Monday's class, Schlosser read a selection from Yoga for Dummies and a poem by Maxine Kumin. The group warmed up to Chuck Berry's "Johnny B. Goode" and stretched later to a Joan Osbourne song that asks, "What if God Was One of Us?"Lately, Schlosser has added salsa music to the soundtrack.

"We get sick of Yanni after a while," he said. "You can only take so much Yanni, especially at the prison."

Schlosser's regular students say they've been able to take the skills they learn in class back to their housing units and the prison yard.

"Each day that I do it, I feel differently," said Bob Montgomery, 59, who joined the class about six months ago and does yoga and meditation regularly on his own.

Montgomery, who is serving a 15-year sentence as a sex offender,has lost 20 pounds since taking up yoga and converting from Catholicism to Buddhism. But the change he's seen in his frame of mind has been even more significant.

Often when he practices yoga in the yard, other inmates heckle him and make jokes. There was a time that he would have become upset with them and reacted, he said. Yoga has made him more patient and less judgmental.

"In a way, yoga is very helpful to help me stay centered," he said.

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