Photo: Sam Moore

Its tongue-in-cheek nickname is “the spa.” With a Madison Ave marketing spin, you could pitch it like a retreat: Spend months hidden away on the beautiful Island of Martha’s Vineyard, with accommodations in an historic 18th century estate in downtown Edgartown, enjoying bi-weekly yoga sessions. But “the spa” is more commonly known as The Dukes County House of Corrections (DCHOC). The private accommodations are jail cells. The only outings are to the courthouse down the street. It’s a sentence, not a vacation.

Still, something about the yoga program elicits snarky remarks, suggestions that the DCHOC is more like “Club Med” than jail. Ask the educators and DCHOC employees behind the program, and you get another story. Better yet, ask the inmates.

Read the story.