Food is prepared in the kitchen of Castlerea prison which may greatly benefit prisoners when they are released, writes Daniel Hickey.
The kitchen is manic. Water simmers in pots. Steam escapes from beneath the lid of a saucepan. Slabs of meat sizzle and spit. Chefs shout from one side of the counter to the other, while others sweep the discarded ends of carrots off the floor.
The menu for today's lunch is cream of broccoli soup, roast beef and glazed carrots, with profiteroles for dessert. But this is neither a hotel nor a restaurant. This is the kitchen in Castlerea prison. And it is the inmates who prepare the food.
Willie Conlon - a garda with the Prison Service - explains that for a number of years the authorities in Castlerea prison have been "keen to develop the training opportunities afforded to prisoners". The catering section is one example.
"We've tried to get our standards up to the highest level available in the community," he says.
Recently a link has been forged with Athlone Institute of Technology.
"What we said was: 'Let's send the ex-offenders out with a real qualification, a higher qualification, and qualify them as chefs'."
The institute now provides the national apprenticeship programme in professional cookery to the prisoners.
Instead of the prisoners visiting Athlone on day-release, the college sends a lecturer to the prison one day a week.
"This is supported by practical work. The offenders who take part, over a period of three years, qualify as chefs if they complete all modules that are laid down in the programme," says Conlon.
"We're trying to keep it as real as people would expect in the community, in the industry."
What the prison hopes to do, says Conlon, is link up all the various services in the prison - education, career guidance and probation.
While advocating a "holistic view" of prisoner release and rehabilitation, Conlon admits that "to a large extent, the missing piece of the jigsaw is the employers".
Research has established that the vast majority of offenders come from the most marginalised and excluded communities.
In January 2000 the Linkage programme was set up between Business In The Community (BITC) - a network of companies pledging an improved impact on society - and the Probation and Welfare Service.
BITC has also established Ready for Work, an employment and training programme for homeless people.
The BITC board is made up of a number of high-profile businessmen, including former IDA Ireland chief executive Kieran McGowan and Anglo Irish Bank chairman Seán Fitzpatrick.
Sixteen training and employment officers are now based in probation offices around the State. The ultimate objective is to assist people's integration or reintegration into the working community.
Barry Owens, a senior training and employment officer for the Probation and Welfare Service in Co Mayo and a member of the Linkage programme, says employers are "the missing link" in the rehabilitation of offenders.
"Employment has been found to be a huge determinant in desistance from crime, the most important part of somebody getting their act together, making good and going straight."
Naturally, employers have expressed concerns about hiring somebody with a criminal record, citing trust, reputation and the need for information and support from the Linkage programme.
This is something Owens acknowledges. "There are certain ways that employers can help us, but we also know that there are certain concerns with offenders," he says.
One potential employer said: "The only reservation I would have myself is the additional management challenge that an employee like that is invariably going to present . . . These people are going to require more effort on my behalf."
Owens believes these concerns can be addressed by "engagement" with employers. "We have a responsibility to employers, if we are going to make a referral, to work with them closely and to not send those who are dangerous, to send those who are most suitable, and to make this mutually beneficial."
He also believes that, by undertaking and completing the programme, ex-offenders demonstrate a willingness to participate and a desire to enjoy a "normal" quality of life such as having a job.
"Research in England has shown that those who knowingly hired an offender - it's a huge percentage of them - had a good experience," he says. "So it's just overcoming this lack of contact between the employers and the criminal justice agencies."
The general perception is that young offenders are bad news. They end up being labelled and their reputation is tarnished. Yet some employers involved in the Linkage programme have spoken of how the scheme improves young offenders' self-esteem.
One employer who hired a number of offenders when they were released from Castlerea said he could "honestly put hand on heart and testify to the willingness and co-operation, and to watching the group grow their self-esteem and self-worth".
