Jailbirds in Flight: Everything You’ve Wanted to Know About Enlightenment in Prison but Were Afraid to Ask

by Nicole Daedone

Nicole Daedone entered federal custody on charges tied to her life’s work—the teaching of Orgasmic Meditation—and found herself inside the “belly of the beast,” the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn. What she encounters there is a nation’s shadow made visible, and within it, an unexpected field of grace.

Daedone meets women of immense courage and wit—OGs, hustlers, ministers, mystics—and even correctional officers whose quiet humanity breaks through the steel divide. Each holds a fragment of forgotten wisdom. Together, they turn the fluorescent corridors of confinement into a living monastery. Between commissary sushi rituals and midnight sermons, they find freedom begins long before the gates open.

Written from inside MDC, this book is a love letter to the human soul and a call to restore the sacred in our most forsaken institutions. With startling tenderness and conviction, Daedone shows what happens when we treat prisons not as wastelands of punishment, but as the bedrock of liberation for a nation.

340 pages, Kindle Edition

Published December 25, 2025

About the author

Nicole Daedone is an author, consultant, teacher and entrepreneur in service of bringing a more fulfilling sense of orgasm to the world. Voted one of Vanity Fair’s Twelve Women Who Changed the Way We Look at Sex, Nicole first came to prominence as the leader of the Slow Sex Movement and the innovator of the 15 minute orgasm. Throughout her work, Nicole has expanded the horizons of sexual experience, which has earned her invitations to share the stage as a speaker alongside other luminaries such as Neil Stauss, Tony Robbins, Naomi Wolfe and Esther Perel, as well as inclusion in Tim Ferris’ breakthrough book “The Four Hour Body.” Nicole brings a no-nonsense, empirical approach to the question most of us ask, “How do I have a better sex life?” But much more than that, her life has been spent exploring the impact our full human potential in the arena of sex and what benefits that can bring to not just individuals and couples, but to communities, organizations and societies as a whole. What becomes possible for our lives, our health, our happiness, and our prosperity when we learn to live in a continual state of orgasm? This is the territory Nicole continues to explore today.

Reviews

[TL Forsberg · Rating 5 out of 5]

breathtaking…

Breathtaking … I couldn’t put it down! A beautifully written intimate portrayal of a woman incarcerated who not only soars beyond-but rather melts within to access the freedom from her deepest reserves. Told beautifully through Daedone’s eyes, it dripped with a rare kind of right seeing and love. In a world that closes their hearts, turns the key and walks away, Deadone opening to her world felt sacred and intimate, revealing the power of woman, and the medicine of true connection.
Ultimately, it was Daedone’s skillful surrender that pointed the way to what is available-if we intentionally open to the love and simply take flight…
This one seemed to burrow its way in. Like it entered a secret chamber of my heart-that I knew was already there, and changed me. Thank you….

[Anne · Rating 5 out of 5]

A powerful and liberating read

Jailbirds in Flight is written with the depth and honesty I’ve come to admire in Nicole Daedone’s work. Her ability to write about love—not as an abstract idea, but as a living, breathing force—is remarkable. Throughout the book, the theme of being free in every circumstance shines with clarity and grace.

Reading it, I recognized my own “inner prison” and felt something in me begin to open. The writing moves between raw truth and poetic observation, leaving space for the reader to see themselves reflected in the journey. It’s more than a book—it’s a mirror and an invitation to freedom of the heart.

[RRC · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such a poignant insight into the human heart. This woman really walks the talk. I know so many people who profess to be religious or spiritual but who don't love their neighbors. This is the opposite of that, how to bring love, be love, in the harshest of circumstances, when you've been wrongly incarcerated. It's not just a book about the author, it's about the other women she finds herself in prison with, and seeing their power, strength, gifts and indomitable spirits. This book with strengthen and uplift you.

[Joanna Van]

This book is stunning. Captivating. The stories of women incarcerated and the truths they are learning that are told through the pages of the book. I love the stories of incarcerated women learning to be free regardless of circumstances. Inspiring. Worth the read!

[James Herriot · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jailbirds in Flight flew into my mailbox. An angel must have sent it! I stripped it from its bubble wrap, soon to read of more intense prison stripping, yet also of pure humanity and feminine desire glowing out of these precious pages. Right away I ordered Kindle and Audible versions!

So many life-changing takeaways in this breakout-of-the-bookshelf book. Nicole invites us to shed our own desire-confining bubble wrap, she generously beginning with hers.

Take off our pink handcuffs. Be For. Be For women. Be For living life as poetry. So personal. Nicole teaches me, us, in a deeper layer down inside us, that when we share our deepest humanity with those the culture has dismissed, cast out, we rediscover our own largess and grandeur more than we ever knew we had.

Love this brilliant author, love this must-read book!

[Laura Hahn · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am still reading "Jailbirds In Flight". I am a slow reader, and what I have read, so far, I am so enjoying. My favorite chapters are the biographies of Nicole's sister-inmates, as I always see a piece of myself in them. When reading the biographies I, pause often, and go inward, and have these reflections of myself, that I do not look at that often. I am grateful for what the book provokes in me. I find myself skipping ahead looking forward to the chapters that are titled with a woman's name, and get anxiously curious and wonder "Who am I going to meet this time!”
I see this book becoming a warm and humbling companion that I keep near and visit often.

[Leahm · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a constant page turner for me. I cannot believe the amount of beauty, humor, and deep challenges this woman has faced. The book is entertaining and deeply inspiring. It took all my preconceptions about prison, "criminals," who is right v. wrong, good v. bad, and put them in a blender - and all I have left is my own discernment, deep compassion, and my black and white thinking turned into a nice... pink.

Definitely one of the best books I've EVER read. I'm so incredibly sorry she is going through this, but this book is freakin amazing.

[Mary Renaghan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a great read. Each heart warming story is filled with compassion, humor and understanding of human nature. Nichole shares intimate, insightful moments and emotions that touch on the vulnerability of all humanity regardless of the situation one may be experiencing in life. We are invited to open and expand our awareness of the learned prejudices made by society and embrace a new perspective that includes compassion and a new paradym of the incarcerated. I will read this book many times.

[Courtenay · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jailbirds in Flight is a beautiful book. I cried and I laughed as I read it. Daedone finds beauty in the darkest location (a federal detention center) and shows that freedom does not depend on circumstances. She shares the stories of the women she is incarcerated with, showing their humanity, and she shares her own stories and insights of the daily work and practice she does to always live unconditionally free.

[Reader · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jailbirds in Flight is a powerful and beautifully written book that offers an honest look into the author’s experience and perspective. I enjoyed hearing her voice directly. And occurs to me to be a far more nuanced and complex account of her experience than the narrative created in the media. I was especially moved by the stories of the other women, which are shared with care and sensitivity. All the stories come across as deeply human, grounded, and real.

[Caroline Griggs · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely loved this book. I could not put it down. Its a great combination of learning about life in prison, a womens journey to freedom, feeling the depth of intimacy in prison, and getting to see people in prison from a whole different aspect. I laughed and cried as I read this book. And I learned a lot for myself as well.

[Austin Ayer · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book read so enjoyably with such a natural delight drawn from each situation even and infused with gems of unusual insight. The writer seems to excel at collecting gems of meaning from seemingly unfertile soil and make it look easy.

[Matthew Sherman · Rating 5 out of 5]

II can see it all so visually. And Love how it starts with this climactic feeling confrontation scene and then pulls it back going into the backstory, weaves in a little legal, history and her stand on sexuality as she roles into the different characters she’s experiencing in this new world.

[Chelsea · Rating 5 out of 5]

Stunning. Nicole really takes the reader on a journey of being incarcerated through her eyes. The cold and inhumane parts honestly told will break your heart but not as much as the humanity she finds inside, the beauty and love with crack you open.

[Lorraine · Rating 5 out of 5]

I couldn’t put this book down. This book is so inspiring, eye opening and heartbreaking. Nicole’s journey through life on the inside with her fellow inmates is a magical exploration of what it’s like to see through the eyes of love no matter where life takes you.

[Rachael Hemsi · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent book. Beautifully touches on the heart of what it means to be incarcerated and the woman who live there. So touching. I would recommend this book to anyone and everyone

[Kevin Williams · Rating 5 out of 5]

Could not stop reading

I could not stop reading this. The stories of these women are just so powerful and real. The rendering of what’s it’s actually like in a modern federal detention center was equal parts horrifying and touching, with the humanity of the people and the place, officers and inmates alike, winning out. The stories of Diamond and her family, Royal, Neveah, Lyric and the others was so powerful. Nailbiting moments that evoke all the horrors of prison violence turn into moments of hope and connection. Whether you are interested in prison life, or Buddhism or spirituality, or just a rich and uplifting story, Jailbirds in Flight will leave you inspired and wanting more