The UK has the biggest prison population in Europe.

But rehabilitation is extremely difficult.

Adult prisoners often reoffend within a year of their release.

A figure which rises to 60% for people sentenced to less than a year.

This cycle of reoffending costs up to £13 billion a year and many prisons are now overcrowded.

How can we help reverse this trend and keep more offenders out of prison, for good?

There is a tendency to look upon criminal offenders as being ‘good for nothing.’ With many people adopting the opinion that we should ‘lock them up and throw away the key.’ This lack of empathy merely adds to the problem. After all, there is an argument that everyone deserves a second chance. Many prisoners actually reoffend on purpose due to a lack of housing and job opportunities on the outside. They simply leave prison with no skills, no qualifications, no support and a criminal record. Which leaves them with no other option. So many people just don’t have the necessary means to survive and function in society upon their release.

An overwhelming majority of hospitality and catering professionals say it is now harder to find the quality of employees they are looking for than ever before. Which means there are always a lot of job vacancies waiting to be filled. What if we could train prisoners to fill them? Or better still, what if we could open restaurants inside the prisons that are open to the paying public? Prisoners could then train on the job and the money that the restaurants make could be used to make such a course of rehabilitation sustainable. Food for thought.

The restaurant is aimed at the paying public. Without them, the scheme wouldn’t be sustainable and such a restaurant wouldn’t survive. So, to raise awareness of the restaurants, we sent a mailer with a knife and fork secreted inside that invited journalists and food critics to come along and dig in. Then, after raising the profile of the restaurants through their positive write-ups and reviews, we targeted consumers with a press and outdoor campaign to increase bookings from paying customers.

‘The Clink’ is slang for prison in the UK. Which made it the perfect name for the restaurants.

The scheme has been rolled out across four UK prisons – Styal, Brixton, Cardiff and High Down.

The book invited journalists to dig in. Prisoners famously try to dig their way out using utensils that were somehow concealed. We fuelled the intrigue through the specially designed dust-jacket which introduced The Clink and the story we wanted to tell. The theme of ‘escaping’ was a snug fit for the brand and our objective of helping prisoners escape a life of crime.

Print executions gave prison images a culinary twist.

Fork – Prison window bars collide with a fork handle.

Fish – A prison fence collides with the scales of a fish.

Thyme – Barbed wire collides with a sprig of thyme.

They were placed as local press, outdoor and bus backs.

Positive write-ups from journalists, including a Masterchef food critic. The Clink featured in national newspapers, publications and in an on-board Emirates magazine. In addition to social change coverage, The Clink has been listed in ‘Top Places to Eat’ lists and is the No.1 recommend on TripAdvisor with plenty of 5 Star customer reviews. Most importantly, last year, 361 prisoners were trained through The Clink. Official statistics show that prisoners who have completed the course

are 49.6% less likely to reoffend upon release.