Hospitality in and outside of prisons: prison restaurants and cafés

Abstract

“Hospitality” is certainly not a word that comes to mind when one thinks of a prison, and neither does the phrase “award-winning restaurant”. But there are now several hospitality establishments that have opened inside and outside of prisons using offenders and ex-offenders as their workforce. While working, they can complete hospitality education and training programmes, which can result in some positive outcomes. One is producing skilled labour and the other is reducing the recidivism rate of graduates from hospitality education and training programmes. All the information and data reviewed for this article are from a wider study and published sources. This article highlights different hospitality establishments inside and outside of prisons using hospitality education and training programmes. It focuses on the similarities in and differences between two of these hospitality establishments (The Clink and Street & Arrow) and discusses what future research would need to be conducted to determine what rehabilitative effects hospitality could have for offenders and ex-offenders.