Ex-prisoners go from serving sentences to cappuccinos

PACE (Prisoners Aid through Community Effort) was first established in 1969 by Coolock residents who realised that former prisoners were in need of support after returning to live in the community.

Now, the organisation offers a residential facility, Priorswood House, for men who are homeless after leaving prison. PACE operates a workshop in Santry where former inmates can learn metalwork and woodwork skills, and sell their wares through an online shop.

It also supports them to gain training and certification required for work in the construction industry, or as drivers.

Since 2018, PACE began offering barista training and opened a coffee kiosk, aptly named The Mug Shot, outside the Four Courts in Dublin. That kiosk is still doing a brisk trade, and last summer, the business expanded to include a café in the newly-refurbished Bridgefoot Street Park in Dublin 8.

Maggie Clune, Acting CEO at PACE spoke to Changing Ireland about the organisation, and the challenges facing people with criminal convictions.

“Up until about 2014, it (PACE) was very much focused on training. From talking to the participants and asking what could be improved, a lot of the feedback was: ‘We do our training in prison, what we need now is jobs’.

“So I said, ‘Okay, I’ll go out and ask employers to take you on’. I was quite naive and thought that would be easy. I discovered very quickly that the people we work with have huge barriers with trying to get back into the workforce, in terms of employers just being really fearful of taking on people with criminal records.

“But also the people that we’re working with who have done long stints in prison, they’re completely out of the loop when it comes to what’s expected from an employment point of view.”

In 2018 Maggie and the team decided to move into the world of hospitality, after feedback from service users revealed that there was a lot of interest in the sector.

“We looked at the coffee business, which was really booming in Ireland. We were going to originally open a coffee shop, but it was just too risky. We’re a charity and we’re government funded so we don’t get to take risks with money. It was logical then to start with a coffee cart. And that’s how the first Mug Shot came about,” Maggie explained

“Then we expanded into Bridgefoot Street Park in partnership with Dublin City Council. We opened in a container in the park there in June. We’re open seven days a week.

“At the moment, we have about five or six (staff) on our books. It’s a quiet time of year; we will take on more people as the summer progresses. We do have male baristas, but a lot of women tend to like The Mug Shot and working with the public.”

Maggie has seen former prisoners transform through working at The Mug Shot. Having steady employment, and the responsibility of running a café, has done wonders for some of the staff members’ self-confidence, which can often be at rock bottom after a stint in prison.

“The knock-on effect is just huge for somebody who hasn’t worked in a long time, or who had many years of being completely blindsided by addiction,” she said.

“This job, this sense of purpose, dealing with the public, this feeling of being relied on: ‘Somebody’s given me the keys to open up. Somebody’s trusting me to cash up at the end of the day’. The impact of that on somebody who in other times of their lives may have been pushed to the fringes of society and told that they’re a bad person, it’s priceless.

“It’s a real privilege to see it happening. It blows my mind actually, what some people overcome in their lives.”

Maggie continued: “We have a fantastic team in The Mug Shot. It’s real team spirit, and they’re all so capable. They’re running the business themselves. They’re responsible for opening up, cashing up, making orders, stocktaking. If something’s not selling, letting us know, coming up with ideas.

“For some people, they had no idea that they had these skills until they got this opportunity. For other people, it’s a case of ‘I never thought anybody would ever trust me again, and you’ve given me the keys to the shop’. And that’s a big deal. That builds confidence and gives people hope that mainstream employers will take them on. It gives the workers a CV again.”

Do attitudes towards employing people with criminal convictions need to change? According to Maggie, that’s a definite yes.

“In Ireland, we are a little bit behind. In the UK there’s a lot more promotion from the government around encouraging employers to take on people with criminal records, and you have some employers going into the prisons to recruit people.

“Right now social enterprises that work with people with criminal records in Ireland are the stopgap between prison and mainstream employment. But people should be able to come out of prison and go directly into employment. We shouldn’t exist really. On average, there are only about 4,000 people in prison at any one time, so it would be quite manageable.

“It’s still a really hard slog for people even after all of that support and training. The people that we work with are really demonstrating that they have changed their lives, they have no intentions of going back to crime, and all they need is a job to secure that. It’s such an apprehension for them: ‘Should I talk about the criminal record or not’. There’s no right answer to that because it really depends on the employer.

“It needs to be in employment law that you cannot discriminate against somebody because they have a criminal record. And that’s not there yet. But it’s really about employers giving people a chance, so that’s something we would try and promote.”

When asked what changes could be made to the current prison system, Maggie replied: “We need to be better informed about options for people who commit crimes. Prison really should be the last option. I think the judiciary, if they were better informed about options like PACE, instead of sending somebody to prison, maybe send them to PACE where they can do something positive in the community with their lives. Give them the opportunity to invest in themselves.

“Let’s not focus on people’s weaknesses, let’s focus on their strengths and build on them. What is it they’re good at?

“A lot of people who are in prison shouldn’t be in prison, in my opinion. Addiction is a huge, huge factor. Many people that are working in prisons will say there has to be another way of dealing with this. We’re locking up people for having health issues.”

She added: “A lot of women that are going into prison, it is a revolving door. They’re coming out and the addiction gets a hold of them again, then they’re committing crimes to feed the addiction. I’ve heard women say ‘I’d rather be in prison. I know I’m going to get fed. I’ve got somewhere to sleep’. It’s a break from the harsh realities of being outside, and that’s really sad as a society that that’s where we’re at now.”

To read our full report on employment opportunities for former prisoners, see Changing Ireland’s Spring Edition here.