It’s nearly lunchtime and HMP Perth is bustling.
Many prisoners are heading back to their halls after spending the morning in classes and workshops, but a small group are continuing their work in the kitchen.
These prisoners are taking part in a ten-week long course, run by hospitality firm Greene King, to train them to work in a professional kitchen.
One of these men, Andy, from Liverpool, is serving more than five-and-a-half years in Perth for a crime he committed in Scotland.
Before his conviction, Andy ran his own cafe.
“I just love being in the kitchen. I feel a passion when I’m in the kitchen,” he told Scotland Tonight.
“The training that you get, they’re always on your shoulder whispering things into your ear instead of calling you up, which has been good.”
John Tracey from Greene King says prisoners learn practical skills in the kitchen and earn qualifications that may help them into employment upon release.
He said: “We’ve got 160 people already employed with Greene King through custody and full-time employment, and the aim is that will increase to 400 by the end of 2025.
“It’s an achievable target with all these programmes that are up and running.”
Andy says training with a firm that has a track record of employing people with convictions is a big source of motivation.
He said: “If you work hard in prison, you think ‘I’m going home, I’m going to get a job doing what I want to do’ and then, bang, there’s no job.
“That could possibly take someone back to prison.”
Reoffending rate too high
One of the many challenges the prison service is grappling with is the rate of reoffending.
The most recent figures show 26.9% of prisoners who have served a custodial sentence reoffend within a year of being released.
STV NewsTom Martin, the head of offender outcomes at HMP Perth, said for the first time the prison is working with local services to make the transition back into the community easier for those leaving prison.
He said: “If you look at the prison population the demographic of the prison population is quite high between the ages of 30-49.
“If that’s that case then generally these are people that have come to a point in their life where their employment’s not worked out.
“Their family has not worked out, they’ve maybe lost support in their communities so they turn to offending sometimes to survive or to make financial gains. Then they come into custody.
“I think what we need to do is take these people and tell them at this age they’ve still got opportunities ahead of them.”
Jamie’s Story
Someone who knows reoffending all too well is Jamie, who has served several prison sentences.
He said: “Since 2009, I’ve been coming here.
“I get out and I stay out for a few months – five or six months maybe. Then I’m back here again. It’s like a revolving door.
“There’s a lot of challenges – boredom, drugs as well as drink. It’s all in your face… so you can give in.”
STV NewsJamie is now participating in a landscaping programme with the help of Dundee and Angus College. He and other inmates are transforming an unused patch of land outside the prison into a working garden.
Jamie said having work to focus on gives his days more purpose and helps his anxiety about the future.
“It maybe takes a bit of that anxiety of getting out away cos you’re going out with a bit of a plan.
“I think it’s probably the biggest thing to get out with a plan and stick to it if you can.”
Looking beyond prison
Andy said his ideal scenario is to leave prison and get a job with Greene King.
“It’s up to me to run away with it and take it with two hands because my wee lad – I haven’t been the best to him as a dad so I need to make sure that’s right.”
Jamie hopes opportunities like this can help him break that pattern.
“The biggest dream is to not come back here and to make my dad proud of me.”
“These courses are brilliant, it’s giving people a chance.
“It’ll not work for everybody but it’ll work for some people and the more people that can stay out of here the better.”
Watch the full programme on Scotland Tonight at 8.30pm on Thursday night or catch up on STV Player.
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