Prison food is usually synonymous with gruel and unhealthy eating. So it is surprising to discover that a project at an inner-city Victorian prison is not only championing fresh green salads and homemade cooking but also producing its own fruit and veg. The horticultural and catering course From Greenhouse to the Kitchen at Liverpool prison is an example of how the prison service, working with local organisations including the NHS, can help offenders get jobs on their release.
For 47-year-old Jeffrey Jones the benefits have been enormous. Eighteen months ago the future looked bleak after the jobless, homeless mechanic was given a two-year prison sentence for a firearms offence. Police had discovered in his van a toy gun he had bought for his nephew's birthday. Today Jones is working in a hotel kitchen in Snowdonia after being given early release from prison.
"I didn't really want to do the course at first, but I put my name down, thinking thought it would be a way to get some good scoff every day. Prison food is awful," he says. "But as soon as I started the course I realised I enjoyed it a lot. I learned to make curries, lasagne and even chocolate eclairs. After I gained my accreditations I wrote to an elderly couple I knew, and I was offered a job with accommodation at their hotel."
Jones is just one of 30 former prisoners to have benefited from the community-backed project. Eight others have also been promised jobs across the catering industry.
Staff at Liverpool prison worked with Merseyside primary care trust (PCT), Jobcentre Plus and Mercia Partnership — a learning and skills provider — to launch the £30,000 scheme in June 2007. Prison staff transformed an underused classroom into an industry-standard kitchen and built a greenhouse on a tiny patch of prison land.
Funding came from the PCT, which believes the training offered by the project will reduce the risk of ex-offenders suffering the mental health problems that arise from unemployment and social exclusion. It is also hoped that by learning how to cook healthy, nutritionally balanced meals, the men will take a more active role in family life.
"We initially set out to be a positive influence on offenders' choices about growing their own produce and eating healthily, and to set up a course with accreditation," says Lynda Oakley, head of learning and skills at the prison. "We also wanted them to learn how to purchase goods within a budget. However, as the course progressed, relationships were built up with employers, allowing ex-prisoners to enter the employment market and giving them opportunities for further training and development."
The 12-week course has proved highly popular, both among other offenders eager to join the project and learners' families, who enjoy dishes such as jerk chicken on special family days.
Some offenders are more interested in gardening, which is confined to the greenhouse and its perimeter as well as tubs dotted around the prison. "We prioritise and offer the kitchen course only to those who are interested in working in kitchens on their release," says Oakley.
"At the moment our accreditations are catering based and can be a step towards City & Guilds certificates. Now we also want to get more land to grow food and to offer accreditation in horticultural studies from Liverpool Community College. That should give ex-offenders even more opportunities."
The scheme's success has already led to projects with different partners. A workshop has opened specialising in refurbishing small electrical appliances such as kettles, and there is now training in shoe and watch repair. Meanwhile a local hospital has promised to offer kitchen work to several men who have completed the course, which has been described as "fantastic" by Jeffrey Jones's employers.
John Ross, who owns the Plas Hall Manor Hotel in Wales, says: "This course is very good. Jeff is a very good man who has been through a lot and is a credit to the system. There really need to be more courses like this."
For Jones, who had spent many years homeless, the job has given him something to live for. "I've never been happier. It is not just the job but also the people I work for, who make me feel part of the family. Without my job, I probably would have ended up in prison. Now, thanks to that catering course, for the first time in my life I can look forward to the future and not dread it."
Innovation and progress, partnership working award
SPONSOR Zurich
WINNER HMP Liverpool for its catering course that helps inmates' employment prospects
RUNNERS-UP
Falkirk Children's Commission for consulting with young people and their parents so they have a say on key decisions
Sandwell metropolitan borough council for having young, unemployed estate residents use computer-gaming technology to come up with ideas for developing a piece of land
More on the runners-up on pages 18-19
