Pencil drawing made by Liberation Prison Project student Dylan and gifted to LPP, November 2018. Image courtesy of LPP.

Liberation Prison Project  – US, has partnered with Edovo, the largest learning platform for incarcerated people in the United States, to make Buddhist and meditation materials available to people in prison across the country. Technology has long been an integral part of the world, and “Tech for Good” offers an opportunity to leverage technological advancements for the benefit of communities and society at large. One such solution is the ed-tech platform, Edovo, which offers the Edovo Learn App, a self-directed software application built exclusively for corrections, offering a comprehensive suite of educational, vocational, and rehabilitative programs at no cost to incarcerated individuals. LPP Director, Smitha Lahiri, shares this update.

“Physically in the house of no release, but when the mind is practicing Dharma it becomes the house for achieving ultimate real liberation from the real samsaric prison.” ~Lama Zopa Rinpoche

Liberation Prison Project  (LPP) has been serving the incarcerated for over thirty years, offering spiritual advice and teachings to people in prison interested in exploring, studying, and practicing Buddhism. Since its founding by Ven. Robina Courtin in 1996, the project has supported the Buddhist practice of over 20,000 individuals in prisons around the world, to transform their lives. LPP’s Dharma Friends program provides spiritual guidance and support to incarcerated individuals through letters and other digital communication channels, while the Dharma books program donates books and Buddhist study materials. 

In 2024, the LPP Education program embarked on a journey to bring Mahayana Buddhism courses and study materials to the incarcerated individuals through the ed-tech platform Edovo, in an effort to extend LPP’s reach exponentially. Edovo has today been adopted by over 50% of US prisons, serving more than a million incarcerated individuals. The learner experience on Edovo for the FPMT courses is similar to the FPMT’s online learning platform, where students have access to videos and audio recordings of teachings and guided meditations along with transcripts to read through.

In March 2025, with the support of FPMT Education Services, LPP launched the introductory courses Buddhism in a Nutshell and Meditation 101. As part of this first release on Edovo, LPP also deployed forty-eight books and reading materials with support from Wisdom Publications and Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive.

In April 2025, as part of the second major release on Edovo, LPP offered the fourteen-module comprehensive FPMT course Discovering Buddhism, the Liberation Calendar, books, and reading materials with the help of publisher partner organizations. In addition, LPP shared the entire compilation of the popular short-form content series by Ven. Robina Courtin, Something to Think About, which offers nuggets of Buddhist wisdom applied to everyday life scenarios —an arduous effort but one that was more than worthwhile.

Surveying the learner analytics for LPP content gives us a sense of fulfillment. These are not just statistics, but sentient beings like all of us, looking for ways to reduce their suffering. And it is a deep practice for all of us involved to keep the true spirit of Dharma in supporting the Dharma journey of people we will never know or meet.

To date, over 13,000 unique learners and over 62,000 lesson starts have been recorded for LPP materials. LPP’s completion rate on the platform is over 16%, one of the highest among Edovo content providers. The recent release of Discovering Buddhism has seen over 2,000 lesson engagements in less than a month, and the first module Mind and Its Potential has been completed by fifty-seven prisoners already.

With Edovo’s guidance, LPP has been able to bring these courses out in the most optimal way, with both pre and post course evaluations. We look forward to studying the learner responses to better understand the effectiveness of the courses, and to bring further enhancements to our content as needed.

LPP offers immense gratitude to the FPMT Community Support Fund for the grant received in supporting our work with Edovo. Every contribution goes a long way in providing incarcerated individuals with continued access to the Dharma.

Last but not least, our deepest gratitude goes to our partners FPMT, Wisdom Publications, and Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive (LYWA) and to the volunteers CJ Wilkerson, John Castelloe, Jyothi K, Niraj Gupta, Suzie Boehm, Beth Martin, and Smitha Lahiri who generously gave four months of their time to bring the current release to fruition. Please join us in rejoicing in their efforts and in praying that the conditions are ripe for more and more prisoners to receive the Dharma.

Please learn more about the Liberation Prison Project and how you can help support their work. 

Written by Smitha Lahiri who has been volunteering as Director of Liberation Prison Project since December 2025, having been Assistant Director prior, and a volunteer since January 2025. She first came in contact with FPMT at the Bangalore center, Choe Khor Sum Ling in 2015. She has been a long time Buddhist student and practitioner and has earned a diploma as well as a masters’s degree in Buddhist Philosophy. She has served multiple Dharma organizations in various capacities over the years and lets the FPMT Inner Job Description guide her in everyday life. 

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Foundation for the Preservation of Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), is a Tibetan Buddhist organization dedicated to the transmission of the Mahayana Buddhist tradition and values worldwide through teaching, meditation and community service.