Acuda, a non profit organization based in the state of Rondônia in Brazil believes that the use of Ayahuasca can be beneficial to inmates. To be fair, Acuda also offers other kinds of workshops in their efforts to rehabilitate criminals such as yoga, meditation, computer classes, other religious practices aside from Santo Daime, massage therapy, etc.
Santo Daime is a syncretic religion founded in the 1930s in the Brazilian Amazonian state of Acre by Raimundo Irineu Serra,[1] known as Mestre Irineu. Santo Daime incorporates elements of several religious or spiritual traditions including Folk Catholicism, Kardecist Spiritism, African animism and indigenous South American shamanism, including vegetalismo.
Ceremonies — trabalhos (Brazilian Portuguese for “works”) — are typically several hours long and are undertaken sitting in silent “concentration”, or sung collectively, dancing according to simple steps in geometrical formation. Ayahuasca, referred to as Daime within the practice, which contains several psychoactive compounds, is drunk as part of the ceremony. The drinking of Daime can induce a strong emetic effect which is embraced as both emotional and physical purging.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PjVmZY7qzUU]
According to one of the founders the only way to re-integrate a convicted person is through the use of Santo Daime, so the inmate gets into his own subconscious and have a vision of what they have done.
Over 1500 inmates have gone through the ACUDA program.
Via Trip (in Portuguese)
