This yoga class takes place in a gym, on a tiled floor beneath a basketball hoop, rather than at a yoga studio. The mats are padded gym mats instead of the usual flat, sticky yoga mats.

The doors in the building are locked, with staff buzzed in and out.

The nine teenagers in a recent Sunday morning class five male, four female were dressed in dark-colored cotton pants and shirts, their gray sweat shirts and slip-on shoes next to their mats.

While the setting might look different, the class was familiar to anyone who has practiced yoga. Students started with poses that warm up their bodies, then moved on to a sun salutation series. The teacher led them through balance poses, standing and seated poses, and finally some stretches for the shoulders and twists. Class ended with savasana, a pose of total relaxation.

The students are inmates at the Champaign County Juvenile Detention Center. Maggie Taylor has been teaching the class a couple of times a month for the past six months. Its the first yoga program offered at the center.

Taylor is part of a cooperative of yoga teachers called Tadasana Yoga, who aim to bring yoga to more people including those who cant get to a studio or cant afford fees for classes through mobile classes with a variable fee structure.

Several years ago, she taught yoga at a residential facility in Portland, Ore. Her students were young men who had served their sentences and were transitioning back to regular life.

I feel like yoga can benefit everyone, Taylor said, noting the 16- and 17-year-olds she taught in Oregon really have high stress levels. I think the possibility of yoga to have a transformative effect in that environment is even greater.

Taylor approached the juvenile detention center last year to see if there was interest in a yoga class. Shannon Siders, assistant superintendent at the center, practices yoga; she started a few years ago to relieve the stress of her job and increase her flexibility.

She thought the teens at the detention center might get the same benefits from yoga that she gets.

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Yoga's 'calming' influence