Health & Wellbeing Community & Social Justice 2024
The Prison Phoenix Trust

The Prison Phoenix Trust Impact Report 2024

The Prison Phoenix Trust (The PPT) has been providing yoga, meditation and one-to-one mentoring support to people in prison across the UK and Ireland since 1988. Working with a staff team of 7 (6 FTE) and 41 volunteers, the charity reached 5,012 prisoners and 1,669 prison staff across 196 establishments in 2024. Classes grew 33% year-on-year to 75 prisons. Mindful Yoga courses showed 84% of participants experienced meaningful mental wellbeing improvement, validated by the Warwick-Edinburgh scale. A new growth strategy launched in 2024 aims to scale digital yoga provision, increase statutory income (now 13% of total), and expand the teacher training pipeline. The PPT was Highly Commended at the 2024 Inspire Justice Awards for health and wellbeing, and its CEO presented at Cambridge University's Contemplation Forum.

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📋About

One-to-one mentoring correspondence for prisoners; free books, CDs and DVDs matched to learning needs; quarterly peer-support newsletter; trauma-responsive prison yoga classes (including 5 prisons via MoJ contracts); taster workshops (21 in 7 prisons); yoga teacher training with British Wheel of Yoga; digital yoga resources; columns in prisoner newspaper Inside Time; support to prison staff; Mental Health Awareness Week yoga provision across 55 prisons Custom geography from upload: United Kingdom and Ireland

📊Key Metrics

5,012 people in prison received the quarterly peer-support newsletter in 2024, alongside 1,669 prison staff across 196 establishments in 4 prison systems Key Metric 1
75 prisons ran regular PPT yoga classes in 2024 — a 33% increase on 58 in 2023 — with 96 accredited teachers active or ready to teach Key Metric 2
2,143 prisoners received free resource packs via 13 volunteer mentors writing 47 letters per month; a further 536 received one-to-one written mentoring support Key Metric 3

✅Key Outcomes

  • Of 40 participants in Mindful Yoga courses at 2 women's prisons, 84% experienced meaningful improvement in mental wellbeing (measured using the validated Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Wellbeing Scale), with the proportion reporting low mental wellbeing falling from 69% to 5% and high mental wellbeing rising from 0% to 18%
  • The number of prisons running regular PPT yoga classes grew from 58 in 2023 to 75 in 2024 — a 33% increase — despite severe prison overcrowding, under-staffing, and budget cuts, demonstrating the resilience and demand for the programme in one of the most challenging operational environments in the charity sector
  • A new growth strategy launched in 2024 — supported by a significant development grant from Porticus and legacy donations, a Deloitte Digital Connect mentoring programme, and a leading role in the Yoga in Society All Party Parliamentary Group — is set to expand the digital yoga model and increase the Trust's influence on prison funding and structure over a three-year period

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