Diners at restaurant staffed by prisoners are smuggling in drugs
IT must have seemed like a worthy venture – a restaurant inside a prison staffed by inmates, offering them valuable qualifications and a chance at a new life after their release.
But for some of those working at The Clink restaurant at HMP Brixton, the opportunity was seen as nothing more than a chance to slip back into their old habits.
For officials have found that diners at the South London restaurant have been smuggling drugs and mobile phones to inmates working in the kitchen.
A report released yesterday said smuggled mobiles led to inmates setting up drug deliveries and being able to ‘maintain control of criminal enterprises’. It comes after prisons across the UK have seen a surge in the amount of contraband, with packages thrown over fences by prisoners’ associates and even dropped off by drone.
The report by inspectors from the Independent Monitoring Board said: ‘Possession and use of mobile phones remained a significant problem. Known sources of drug, phone and sim card importation include visitors, including to The Clink restaurant for a time, mail, and throw-overs.’
The Clink – rated as London’s fourth best restaurant on TripAdvisor – is one of four such restaurants in the UK, with the other three at HMP Cardiff, HMP High Down in Surrey and HMP Styal in Cheshire. It opened at the Category C prison in 2014, and inmates working there gain qualifications in food preparation, food service and cleaning. Many have gone on to work in top restaurants.
Visitors are not allowed to take mobiles into the 120-seat restaurant, all the cutlery is plastic and there are panic buttons on the walls. Dishes on offer this month include roast sirloin of beef, confit duck leg with black pudding and homemade ice cream. A three-course meal costs £29.95 and diners are not allowed to leave tips.
Discussing the risks posed, the IMB report said: ‘Mobile phones are the essential facilitators for arranging drug deliveries, collecting debts and maintaining control of criminal enterprises.’ It added that drugs ‘continued to be easily available’ at HMP Brixton, and that in A and B wings 30 per cent of inmates tested positive for drugs.