Policy Innovation Blog

Prison break

Ruth Puttick - 27.09.2011

The high walls, clanging bars, key chains, security tags, air locked doors, rows of barbed wire, and yet more security checks, are not the usual start when you head out for lunch on a Tuesday. But then the Clink Prison Restaurant is far from ordinary.  

The Clink is a restaurant based within HMP Highdown, a category B prison, one step down from high security. Staffed entirely by inmates, The Clink is a social enterprise that represents a genuine opportunity for change, offering prisoners the chance to gain food preparation, food service and cleaning qualifications as well as experience within an actual, operational business.

Once through the door the only reminders that you are inside a prison are the plastic knives and forks and hearing the inspiringly positive stories from the trainees. Take Mark, a 26 year old father of two, who credits his experience at the Clink so far as helping to transform his life. He told us that The Clink "shows prisoners are employable... we know we've messed up, did a silly thing, but we can turn around. I don't want my life to be over... I've found my vocation which is amazing. Many people can't say that".

So what did we learn about innovation? The idea of a training restaurant for troubled youngsters is not new: the no nonsense discipline Head Chef Alberto Crisci instils in his staff is very much reminiscent of Jamie Oliver's Fifteen. Similarly, the idea of preparing inmates for a vocation in their life after prison is also not new - the Clink itself grew out of a fairly traditional training programme already operating in Highdown that taught cheffing skills.

However, the innovation comes from combining the two concepts together, bringing paying customers inside to create a working enterprise within a prison. The Clink provides both a physical and psychological bridge between 'inside' and 'outside', bringing customers within the prison walls, and creating a space within the bleak grey exterior which is indistinguishable (plastic cutlery aside) from an up-market west-end hangout. The personal impact that this bridging creates is clear when you consider the front of house manager is himself an ex-inmate who chose to return to the restaurant as a trainer upon release. Expansion plans for a pop-up restaurant at festivals and another restaurant in Kennington staffed by those recently released inmates also demonstrate the blurring of 'inside' and 'outside'. This bridging changes mindsets: rather than have to hide their time in prison from prospective employers, inmates 'graduate' on release with a job lined up in a decent restaurant.

It also changes outcomes. In the first 18 months of operation 13 "graduates" were released. Out of these 3 sadly reoffended, but even so, Clink graduates are half as likely as the national average to reoffend, with the national average currently at 50% reoffending in the first year of release.

It costs £5,000 for an inmate to graduate from The Clink having gained recognised qualifications in catering as well as hands-on experience in a working restaurant. This may sound expensive to some, but pails into insignificance when you consider that it costs on average £40,000 a year per prisoner, rising to a massive £119,000 for each new prison place created.  What is even more remarkable is that The Clink operates at no cost to the tax payer, supplementing its takings with charitable donations.

We used this visit to reflect on how our work at NESTA can actively help support and develop innovative programmes like this. And given the Clink currently relies on charitable donations, what do people think about a fundraiser to support expansion plans? More details soon.