Criminals who have gone to ground... coffee
A GROUP of Scottish prisoners are to be given drama training and taught barista skills in a bid to stop them reoffending.
The Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and the Dundee Repertory Theatre will lead workshops to help prisoners deal with the ‘challenges’ blighting their lives.
Inmates at the Castle Huntly open prison are already being taught how to make coffee and tea to a professional standard and could be helped to secure work experience with major high street chains including Costa Coffee and Pret A Manger.
The Scottish Prison Service has been praised by local councillors for ‘thinking outside of the box’ but other politicians have said they will need to see results before knowing whether the pilot schemes represent value for money.
The Dundee Repertory Theatre – Dundee Rep – has secured funding for a three-year project working with prisoners at HMP Castle Huntly in drama therapy classes, to ready them for life in the community.
Drama therapy is already used in Broadmoor high security psychiatric hospital in England, where the focus has been on helping prisoners feel empathy and remorse.
Dundee Rep adult drama therapist Rose Sadowski will assist the Scottish Prison Service (SPS) in working with offenders nearing the end of their time in prison.
She said yesterday: ‘Drama has been used in prisons before and it has been very effective. It is, first and foremost, therapy, using creative means to help prisoners address the challenges and problems in their lives with the overall aim of breaking the offending cycle.’
During the first year therapy sessions will be held in the prison, with community work continuing after release with former inmates creating their own drama piece.
The Glasgow-based Royal Conservatoire of Scotland meanwhile has put in a bid for funding to provide its own two-year drama workshop project in the prison with the aim of improving communication and life skills.
The two projects will add to a range of increasingly innovative schemes within Castle Huntly, including the opening of a community cafe within the jail, where inmates gain barista skills.
Dundee councillor Helen Wright, convener of Tayside Community Justice Authority, said the projects represent ‘radical thinking’ for the prison service and should be commended.
Tory MSP Murdo Fraser said: ‘It is important to look at all possible avenues to reduce reoffending. While I would praise the prison service for thinking outside the box, I would hope that the success of these programmes is reviewed in time to ensure that resources are used efficiently and prison still acts as a deterrent.’
‘Breaking the offending cycle’