The Clink
glasses online, made by the ex-offenders.
One person who has been helped by this is Tamara, who was convicted of fraud in 2015 and given a 15-month sentence. It was her first offence.
“I was terrified in prison,” Tamara admits. “I was living in an environment you cannot begin to imagine.”
Fortunately, after a month, she was transferred to an open prison.
She knew she could never return to a role where she would be trusted with money, so she had to think of something else.
At her open prison they ran job fairs, and it was at one of those that she met Tanjit.
She trained with the Prison Opticians Trust on day release, passed her exams and, upon her permanent release, she managed to secure employment.
“Without the Prisons Opticians Trust, I don’t know what my life would be like now,” Tamara says.
Alberto Crisci is the mastermind behind the Clink charity.
“Almost all offenders are good people. Many of us need to change our perception and see them as individuals.”
Alberto, a trained chef, set up a wine bar in Croydon, south London. The business failed and he was declared bankrupt, so he needed to get paid work quickly. Seeing a job advertised for a chef at HMP High Down, he applied and secured the position.
Once there, he was surprised how much he enjoyed working with prisoners. He was also disappointed that there was no catering training for them and was determined to put that right.
After a lot of hard work and effort over several years, not only do they now train chefs (since
2009), but they also serve customers in five prison restaurants which are open to the public.
Alberto has also set up an outside catering arm of the charity and kitchen gardens.