Business collaborations open employment doors for ex-offenders

When experienced hotelier Gez Chetal stepped inside a prison for the first time he says he found it ‘a real eye opener’. Far from the ‘lock up and leave’ ethos he expected, the commitment to education, training and reducing reoffending inspired him to set up his own programme to help prisoners into work on release.

He now works alongside a number of prisons and Community Rehabilitation Companies (CRC) in his local area – including Sodexo’s teams at HMP Peterborough and Norfolk & Suffolk CRC – to offer employment opportunities to residents on release. 

Gez Chetal has 35 years’ experience in the hotel industry, spending 20 years with the Trust House Forte chain before moving to start his own successful chain of hotels. 

He now owns a hotel in Thetford and was inspired to act after months of struggling to find staff. “I started working with the Department of Work and Pensions who suggested that ex-offenders could be a route to recruitment,” said Gez.

"I came to realise there is a lot of talent in the prison population."

Gez started visiting various prisons in his local area with his wife on a regular basis and interviewing people due for release about potential employment prospects. 

Inspired to do more, the couple then looked to secure funding to set up an official programme, and PrismStart was born. Gez engaged with MPs including Dominic Raab, Liz Truss (pictured with Gez) and David Liddington to get high-profile support and has linked up with charities including the Princes Trust and St Michaels Hospice, who work with ex-offenders to reduce reoffending. 

Three ex-offenders from HMP Peterborough have joined his team at the hotel and Gez has also leveraged his contacts in the hospitality industry and local area to convince others to support the drive to recruit ex-offenders, including a chain with 110 hotels and 9,000 staff. 

He understands the pattern of reoffending and how it is a destructive cycle many find hard to break. “One lady I was speaking at Peterborough told me it was her eighth time in prison and admitted she was scared of what was on the outside and was deliberately getting recalled to prison.”

Sodexo knows that with focus and effort, stories and pathways can be dramatically changed and Gez agrees. “I had one lady who was released from HMP Peterborough and came to work for me as a pastry chef; she’s now employed as a chef at a museum in London.” Satisfaction in changing lives is massive. It’s not always an easy journey, yet most employers would agree that all recruitment comes with challenges.”

Sodexo’s team at HMP Peterborough and Norfolk & Suffolk CRC are working with Gez to deliver motivational group sessions, talking to people about his own personal journey from a YTS scheme to running his own hotel chain and his passion for providing opportunities for ex-offenders. 

“Since his first visit to the prison in 2017, Mr Chetal has visited us on a regular 4-to-6 week basis to interview candidates due for release,’ says Paul Stacey, tutor at HMP Peterborough. “He is a pro-active employer who understands the barriers that ex-offenders face in securing meaningful work and provides a pathway for them to maintain a positive change after they leave the establishment. 

"He provides an important avenue for our education department in that we are able to help residents achieve outcomes that will make a difference to their lives and the wider communities."

• According to the Prison Reform Trust 2018 (PRT), 48% of adults are re-convicted within a year of release, with the number rising to 64% for those who served sentences of 12 months or less.
• In the same report, the PRT said that one in four people released from prison in 2014/15 had a job to go to. 
• Half of respondents to a YouGov Survey in 2016 said they would not employ an offender or ex-offender. The same survey saw only 11% of the 1849 respondents say they receive applications from offenders and ex-offenders, with only 8% interviewing them and 7% employing them.

We offer a range of exciting and rewarding jobs. Please see http://sodexojobs.co.uk/ for our current vacancies in Sodexo Justice.

Do you want to find out more about Sodexo Justice? Contact our Business Development team. 

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