Brazil's prisons: life beyond crime

Brazil's prisons: life beyond crime

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Down a dusty dirt road in the Amazonian state of Rondonia, prisoners convicted of murder, theft and other crimes get a rare release from the day-to-day hardships of a penal system known for violence and overcrowding.

ACUDA, a local charity in the capital city of Porto Velho, trains prisoners in spiritual and physical healing practices including Ayurvedic massage, based on ancient Hindu medicine, as well as in conventional vocational skills such as car mechanics and gardening.

. Porto Velho, Brazil. Reuters/Nacho Doce
An inmate tends to a fellow prisoner while performing ear candling.

“It gives inmates something to look forward to and something they can use when they leave,” says Adriano Furtunato, regional manager of the penal system for Rondonia, a poor state on the western fringe of Brazil’s Amazon rainforest.

The system has strict rules of conduct that must be met before inmates can take part, so the therapies also provide an incentive for prisoners to behave, he adds.

The charity, which has its headquarters within a complex of ten prisons in the city, uses local volunteers to run its courses and over the years has trained more than 2,000 inmates. About 110 currently take part in the training programme.

"I took food from my children’s mouths. I was a slave to the drug. I would wake and sleep thinking of it."
Sergio Luiz Brito Aponte

The therapies have one goal, says Luiz Carlos Marques, the charity’s founder - educating inmates about the possibilities of life beyond crime. “Nobody can force someone to stop breaking the law,” he says. “It’s something each person has to decide on their own.”

In a recent training session, prisoners in handcuffs were bussed to the charity’s headquarters, located within a complex of 10 prisons. Activities ranged from Ayurvedic massage to yoga, ear candling therapy and pottery painting.

. Porto Velho, Brazil. Reuters/Nacho Doce
A woman holds children as handcuffed prisoner Sergio Batista (right), 29, arrives to take part in the ACUDA programme.

From watching the prisoners, their favourite seemed to be the clay therapy that’s designed to improve skin health for the prisoners, who spend most of their hours in dank, dark cells.

. Porto Velho, Brazil. Reuters/Nacho Doce
Prisoners (left to right) Raimundo Souza, 24, Jairo Caracara, 38 and Tiago Kinkas, 23, are covered in clay in a therapy session.

Family members join the detainees on the last Friday of each month. Everyone shares a meal and prisoners, some of whom show their Ayurveda certificates to their mothers, then use their new skills to massage family members.

. Porto Velho, Brazil. Reuters/Nacho Doce
Prisoner Cleverson Barbosa, 27, kisses his children's feet during a family visit.

Sergio Luiz Brito Aponte, a 38-year-old inmate now five years into a 30-year-sentence for murder and drug trafficking, describes his life before prison.

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Aponte says the therapies offered by ACUDA have helped him achieve much more than he ever did as a free man.

“Today I am a mechanic, a sculptor, a masseur and other things,” he says. “I didn’t know how to do anything before, only wrong.”

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Slideshow

An inmate walks through a prison courtyard at a complex of ten prisons in Porto Velho, Rondonia State, Brazil.
. Porto Velho, Brazil. Reuters/Nacho Doce

An inmate walks through a prison courtyard at a complex of ten prisons in Porto Velho, Rondonia State, Brazil.

A woman walks with her baby near a bus containing detainees in the prison complex.
. Porto Velho, Brazil. Reuters/Nacho Doce

A woman walks with her baby near a bus containing detainees in the prison complex.

A warden removes handcuffs from Arlen Sena, 26 and Honorio Santos, 33, as they arrive to take part in the ACUDA programme.
. Porto Velho, Brazil. Reuters/Nacho Doce

A warden removes handcuffs from Arlen Sena, 26 and Honorio Santos, 33, as they arrive to take part in the ACUDA programme.

Prisoners’ handcuffs lie on the floor at the entrance of ACUDA’s headquarters inside the prison complex.
. Porto Velho, Brazil. Reuters/Nacho Doce

Prisoners’ handcuffs lie on the floor at the entrance of ACUDA’s headquarters inside the prison complex.

An inmate gives a fellow prisoner an Ayurvedic massage. Ayurveda is an ancient Hindu system of holistic healing. Prisoners learn massage to help them understand the human body and develop more compassion for others, according to ACUDA.
. Porto Velho, Brazil. Reuters/Nacho Doce

An inmate gives a fellow prisoner an Ayurvedic massage. Ayurveda is an ancient Hindu system of holistic healing. Prisoners learn massage to help them understand the human body and develop more compassion for others, according to ACUDA.

An occupational therapist gives an Ayurvedic massage to prisoner Anderson Miranda, 33.
. Porto Velho, Brazil. Reuters/Nacho Doce

An occupational therapist gives an Ayurvedic massage to prisoner Anderson Miranda, 33.

Inmates give their relatives Ayurvedic massages during a half-day family visit to the prisons.
. Porto Velho, Brazil. Reuters/Nacho Doce

Inmates give their relatives Ayurvedic massages during a half-day family visit to the prisons.

Prisoner Hugo Garcia, 22, smiles as his son takes a bath helped by the child’s grandmother during a  family visit to ACUDA’s headquarters.
. Porto Velho, Brazil. Reuters/Nacho Doce

Prisoner Hugo Garcia, 22, smiles as his son takes a bath helped by the child’s grandmother during a family visit to ACUDA’s headquarters.

Prisoner Cleverson Barbosa, 27, caresses his wife as their children sit nearby, during a family visit at ACUDA’s headquarters.
. Porto Velho, Brazil. Reuters/Nacho Doce

Prisoner Cleverson Barbosa, 27, caresses his wife as their children sit nearby, during a family visit at ACUDA’s headquarters.

Prisoners clean ACUDA’s headquarters after taking part in alternative therapies.
. Porto Velho, Brazil. Reuters/Nacho Doce

Prisoners clean ACUDA’s headquarters after taking part in alternative therapies.

Inmates, patients at a psychiatric prison, receive Bach Flower remedies from a fellow prisoner as part of the ACUDA programme.
. Porto Velho, Brazil. Reuters/Nacho Doce

Inmates, patients at a psychiatric prison, receive Bach Flower remedies from a fellow prisoner as part of the ACUDA programme.

Prisoner Anderson Miranda, 33, plays with his son during a family visit to ACUDA’s headquarters.
. Porto Velho, Brazil. Reuters/Nacho Doce

Prisoner Anderson Miranda, 33, plays with his son during a family visit to ACUDA’s headquarters.

Prisoner Rafael Oliveira, 22, embraces his wife and baby during a family visit at ACUDA’s headquarters.
. Porto Velho, Brazil. Reuters/Nacho Doce

Prisoner Rafael Oliveira, 22, embraces his wife and baby during a family visit at ACUDA’s headquarters.

Inmates (wearing blue, left to right) Messias Manoel, Jose Nunes, Manoel Joaquim and Rivaldavio da Silva, patients at a psychiatric prison, sit as a fellow prisoner Tiago (standing behind), 24, takes care of them as part of the ACUDA programme.
. Porto Velho, Brazil. Reuters/Nacho Doce

Inmates (wearing blue, left to right) Messias Manoel, Jose Nunes, Manoel Joaquim and Rivaldavio da Silva, patients at a psychiatric prison, sit as a fellow prisoner Tiago (standing behind), 24, takes care of them as part of the ACUDA programme.

Lights shine in part of a complex of ten prisons along "Penal Road" in Porto Velho, the capital of the Brazilian state of Rondonia.
. Porto Velho, Brazil. Reuters/Nacho Doce

Lights shine in part of a complex of ten prisons along "Penal Road" in Porto Velho, the capital of the Brazilian state of Rondonia.