By C1 Staff
SURREY — Alberto Crisci, director and founder of the Clink operations, is determined to change preconceptions about hiring ex-offenders.
The Clink is a restaurant at High Down Prison in Surrey, where inmates are put through a rigorous 18-month, five-days-a-week, 52-weeks-a-year training program, according to CatererSearch.com.
“If people come to the Clink they’ll make their own mind up and it’s generally positive, whereas if the decision is based on ignorance or headlines, then it’s generally negative,” Crisci explained.
Initially they’re checked for basic literacy and language skills. The inmates are also offered other forms of help, such as anger management, drug or alcohol therapy, IT, English classes, or even social skills workshops. All of it is to help the inmates have every chance of success when they get out.
“We’ve put them under more pressure here, so they know they can cope when they get outside and back into society,” Crisci said. He says that those who are new to the program are initially horrified, but “within an hour they’re fine. It’s getting over that initial barrier.”
The support structure offered by the Clink continues for six months following release. A program called Springboard, which mentors ex-offenders as they re-enter the workplace, offers weekly visits and mentoring sessions. This aims to help ex-offenders not be pulled back into the same going-out culture that caused them to commit crimes in the first place.
To ensure the Clink’s continued success, more employers are needed in order to match the right ex-offender with the right job. At present, 120 companies are signed up so far.
“But we need a huge back of employers to be able to match the right people, at the right times, with the right companies,” says chief executive Chris Moore. “We are trying to change the perception of employers – there will be blips, but these people are just a cross-section of society an come out highly trained, ready to work in an industry that has a skills shortage.”