Sheriff suspends restorative justice program with connections to "orgasmic meditation" organization
October 5, 2022 \u2014 Mendocino County Sheriff Matt Kendall suspended a \u201cprison monastery\u201d program at the jail on Monday afternoon amid revelations that Unconditional Freedom, the organization running the program, was linked to OneTaste, a company intimately connected to the Institute of OM, which touts the supposed neurological and spiritual benefits of an expensive clitoral stimulation technique called Orgasmic Meditation, or OM. The Institute of OM Foundation, which generates white papers and studies on the practice, claimed in a press release to have raised over $2 million \u201cto support rigorous, peer-reviewed scientific research into partnered stimulation and the physiological and psychological effects of Orgasmic Meditation ("OM").\u201d \n\nKendall was concerned that inmates would be vulnerable to exploitation through the so-called spiritual curriculum, which revolved around a self-published book called \u201cThe Art of Soulmaking,\u201d by OneTaste founder Nicole Daedone.The program included a penpal component with mystery address labels and unknown correspondents. One of the Unconditional Freedom volunteers also worked at Juvenile Hall, though he was never alone with inmates, and the curriculum was not in use among the minors.\n\nA Bloomberg piece from 2018 reported former OneTaste members\u2019 allegations that the company pressured its sales team to work long hours selling seats at OneTaste events, often to pay off staggering debts they themselves had incurred to receive higher and higher levels of certification in \u201cthe practice,\u201d which consists of one person stroking a woman\u2019s clitoris for exactly 15 minutes, often in a group setting. And in 2020, the BBC released a ten-part podcast called the \u201cOrgasm Cult,\u201d which interviewed subject matter experts and chronicled the experiences of people who claimed that the organization engaged in abusive and controlling practices to make money from sex.\n\nAn attorney for Unconditional Freedom insisted that there is no legal connection between OneTaste and Unconditional Freedom, though they share key personnel, a website, and a mailing address\n\nAccording to OneTaste\u2019s website, which went live this year, there does seem to be some kind of relationship between the service organization and a company that\u2019s been dogged by reports of financially and sexually exploitive practices. Numerous professional profiles and advertisements for past OneTaste events identify eight current or former OneTaste personnel among the Unconditional Freedom volunteers who appear in months-long correspondence between Kate Feigin, the inmate services coordinator for the Mendocino County jail, and the organization\u2019s leadership. (The connection between Unconditional Freedom and OneTaste was initially reported last year by B.T. Linhden.) \n\nUnconditional Freedom shares an EIN (Employer Identification Number, issued by the IRS to track business tax reporting), with another organization the OneTaste Foundation. The Foundation is legally distinct from OneTaste, though intimately connected with it. A 2014 press release issued by OneTaste for an event called an \u201cOrgasmic Meditation Xperience\u201d in San Francisco states that, All proceeds from ticket sales will go to the OneTaste Foundation, which exists to convert trauma into triumph through the practices of narrative therapy and Orgasmic Meditation. It aims to advance an innovative method of holistic reconciliation which serves to liberate both victims and perpetrators from debilitating, negative narratives.\u201d\n\nUntil a few days ago, the OneTaste website featured a photograph of a Mendocino County jail inmate whom we were able to identify by distinctive tattoos that were visible in photographs Feigin attached to an email she sent to Marcus Ratnathicam, the Executive Director of Unconditional Freedom and a former coach at OneTaste. The picture was replaced shortly after we started asking questions. Visitors to the OneTaste website, which features highly sexual content, can quickly follow a series of links to the Unconditional Freedom website, where they can still view images of inmates and video testimonies by a variety of participants identified as \u201cBuilders of the monastery.\u201d\n\nWe spoke with Unconditional Freedom attorney Caren Callahan about how the program measures the success of the program with inmates. She did not know how much public money it saves. The eight-week curriculum includes brief before-and-after surveys, where inmates self-report a 24% reduction in depression, 23% less use of drugs and alcohol (which they are not supposed to have in the jail anyway), and 16% less anger. Objective measurements like recidivism and post-release employment, housing, and sobriety were not immediately available.\n\nKendall had some rough metrics. He said Unconditional Freedom\u2019s garden program alone saved the jail $10,000 in food costs last year. \u201cAnd it\u2019s going to be more this year, because prices of things have gone up,\u201d he predicted. The jail is also working to gathe...