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Kiran Bedi is the Inspector General of Prisons in New Dehli, India, but while she has made it her goal to reform India's prisons, she has found a new and unusual way to do it. Bedi is a devotee of Vipassana, a form of Indian nonsectarian meditation described by its devotees as "self-transformation through self-observation." Bedi has introduced Vipassana to the inmates of Tihar Central Prison in New Dehli and Baroda Jail in Gujarat, with the goal of using the meditation techniques to curb the anger and violence common to these notorious penal facilities. Doing Time, Doing Vipassana is a documentary which examines both this form of meditation which is little known in the West, and how it is helping to change the lives of India's convicts, many of whom say they've been given a new and healthier perspective on life though its use. The film made its American debut at the 1998 San Francisco International Film Festival.