The hostility of hoops gave one a yen for yoga

By Michael Dobie | Staff Correspondent

July 11, 2004

Wallkill - Jerry Parsons played volleyball and table tennis and lifted weights in Shawangunk Correctional Facility, but stayed away from basketball. Too much hostility, he said.

"You're dealing with different personalities here, different levels of aggressiveness," Parsons said. "A lot of guys don't deal well with anger situations, stress situations, in a healthy way."

The most extreme example occurred in 1998 when an inmate referee in a New Jersey prison stabbed to death an inmate basketball player who had objected to a call in a game earlier that day. More common are fights or verbal altercations.

Parsons, 46, avoided all of that. Instead, he cherished the time he got to spend on yoga, tae bo and other calisthenics. Until a recent transfer to another prison, Parsons was a facilitator in Shawangunk's weekly yoga class.

On a winter Wednesday, Parsons led a group of 11 inmates at the upstate prison through an opening routine called Salute to the Sun. Dressed in olive green shorts and a dark green muscle shirt, Parsons moved fluidly from one stretch to the next, eyes focused on a spot high on the wall before him. A gold cross dangled from a gold chain against his chest.

The men worked out in silence, each on his own mat, following Parsons. Then Parsons left them in the charge of another inmate, and walked to the back of the gym.

"You hear guys who don't participate make all sorts of snide remarks," he said. "They call it the Jane Fonda class."

Parsons, who is serving 16 to 32 years for robbery, invites critics to try it. Not many do.

One inmate who did was Kevin Smith, a Brooklyn man serving a life sentence for murder.

"Yoga is real good, I like it," Smith said. "I believe it's empowering me -- the stretching, the meditating. I feel good, I feel relieved. I look forward to coming here. I wish it was more days."

So does Parsons.

"It's made a major impact on my stress level, my level of concentration, my acceptance of the circumstances I'm in and, how shall I say, my approach to dealing with everyday encounters in here, expected and unexpected," Parsons said. "It's enhanced my life in many ways, and I see where I can take this into free society."

Parsons, who attended John F. Kennedy High School in the Bronx and worked in real estate before his incarceration in 1996, said he is calmer and more focused than before he entered prison.

"I know exactly what I want and how to go about it," he said. "I have the patience to deal with setbacks, the same as building my body. I take my time and I take one step at a time and I go for short-term goals to reach my long-term goals."

His longest-term goal? Using what he has learned to work with kids on the outside, offering them the guidance of an "older guy" who has been through a lot. He might introduce them to yoga, too.