In partnership with The Clink, a UK hospitality charity, Brixton prison has launched a restaurant training program which aims to help inmates reintegrate into society by giving them the right skills and education that they could use to find jobs after they have done their time.
Graduates of the charity’s partnership scheme with Her Majesty’s Prison Service (HMP,) whose flagship ‘prison restaurant’ operates at Brixton Prison, had a reoffending rate of 11 percent, compared with 32 percent for similar inmates who were not involved in the project, according to the BBC.
The Brixton restaurant serves as training environment: it offers accredited qualifications under City & Guilds NVQs in food and beverage service; professional cookery; and food hygiene, and supports graduates after release to find employment and training to continue their career.
What this program does is that it acknowledges one of the roots of the problem for which the inmates are doing time and that is the lack of opportunity. Many people commit crimes not because they want to, but because they have to since they have needs which could not be met and have no other means to get the resources.
Giving these people a second chance by equipping them with the tools and the support they need to get back on their feet once they reintegrate back into society has helped decrease the reoffending rate compared to other similar environments which do not have such a program.
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(Image credit: The Clink/Facebook)