Making prison work: benefits of prisoner-led cooperatives
Dave Nicholson, Director of Ex-Cell Solutions
Dave is Director of Ex-Cell Solutions Ltd, the only Cooperative Development Agency in the UK working exclusively with offenders and ex-offenders. His background is in Probation and Local Economic Development. Dave is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and was educated at Jesus College Cambridge and holds a Masters Degree in Applied Criminology, Penology and Management from the Cambridge University Institute of Criminology.
http:// www. ex-cell. org. uk /
A prisoner-led cooperative runs a micro brewery in Saluzzo Prison in Italy, producing high quality craft beers which are exported across Europe and the United States. The same cooperative also operates in Turin Prison, processing, roasting and packaging coffee and cocoa for the Pausa Café(‘ Coffee Break’) chain of cooperative café bars. Prisoners join the cooperative by paying a small fee. Membership then guarantees them paid employment during their time in prison as well as after their release, together with resettlement support and, as members of the cooperative, they also share in the profits and decision making of the business as a whole.
Employment
Social cooperatives like Pausa are a fast developing feature of the Italian criminal justice system and are increasingly found throughout the EU and in many other countries as well. Some are entirely prisoner and ex-prisoner owned and managed while others include criminal justice and social work staff in their membership to provide additional rehabilitation and resettlement support services. Some work particularly with prisoners with drug and alcohol problems while others work with all categories of offender. Some operate both in prisons and in the community offering‘ through the prison gate’ employment and mutual support, while others provide day release employment and a guarantee of continued employment on release.
Thus the Exodus social cooperative in Capriano del Colle in Italy manufactures semi-finished window and door frames and has serving prisoners on day release as members, together with exprisoners, skilled tradespeople from the local community and a social worker, psychologist, psychiatrist and criminologist who provide additional resettlement and rehabilitation services in the context of membership and employment in the cooperative. It also offers legal services to its members and pays 50 % of any legal costs incurred by them and a job brokerage service to help members move on into the mainstream labour market. This helps maintain a regular throughput of new members and provides an ongoing employment, resettlement and rehabilitation service for local offenders.
In a similar way the Inside Art cooperative in Canada is a marketing and mutual support cooperative of self employed prisoners, ex-prisoners and community artists producing and selling
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