Prisoners are acquiring new skills and gaining qualifications to help to make them ‘work-ready’ when they have completed their sentences.
At the Isle of Man Prison’s Ellan Vannin Skills Centre, they learn new trades, while giving back to the community.
The prison achieved City & Guilds status earlier this year and the Skills Centre is running its first City & Guilds accredited qualifications in bricklaying. This opportunity has been extremely well received by prisoners.
Timothy Russell, the prison’s Principal Officer - Resettlement and Interventions, said:
‘We are committed to helping prisoners acquire new skills and to help them to use their time with us productively.
‘If they leave here better qualified, they will have a much greater chance of finding work, contributing to society and living a more fulfilling life.’
Suitably risk-assessed prisoners can also work in the community where they carry out projects under careful supervision.
Prisoners were praised by Douglas Rugby Club after a work party helped at the ground and clubhouse, preparing its campsite for the TT Festival. The team of prisoners, supervised by officers, helped the club with a number of maintenance and grounds-keeping jobs.
In the prison’s gardens, which grow a lot of the food eaten in the facility, lots of hard work was undertaken over the winter months carrying out repairs and expanding the site.
The prison is now reaping the benefits of this work, and 24 prisoners are currently employed in the gardens.
They work hard to provide fresh food for the kitchens, helping to provide healthier meals for the prisoners and reducing the expenditure required within the catering department. The prison was also represented with entries at several horticultural shows.
The prison has been helped in its aims by several organisations.
Jon Dunne, the Building Skills Lecturer at the prison, applied to Michelmersh Brick Specialists in West Sussex, which had an initiative to help community projects.
He was delighted to hear that the company would donate 10,000 bricks for the bricklaying course.
John Wannenburgh MHK, a political member of the Department of Home Affairs, contacted Brian Thomson, the Steam Packet Company’s Managing Director, after learning about the offer. Mr Thomson agreed to transport the bricks to the Island free of charge.
Manx Independent Carriers also agreed to charge a nominal fee to accept the delivery at its UK depot, loaded it onto the ferry and transported it to the prison in three loads.
Those who have provided support by donating materials, buying equipment, offering their services free of charge or at a discounted rate, helping with logistics to obtain materials and equipment include: His Excellency the Lieutenant Governor and Lady Lorimer; Footprint Tools (Sheffield); Clio and Phil Swales; Isle of Man Steam Packet; Manx Independent Carriers; John Wannenburgh MHK; Kevin Wilkinson, Business Development Manager, City & Guilds; Debbie Reeve (Chief Officer) and Members of the Board of Construction Isle of Man; Michelmersh Brick Specialists; Tooms Building Contractors; Kevin Harold; Mike Kelliher; The Guild of Bricklayers; Liam Buckley; Richard Armitage; Will Brittles; The City of Liverpool College; Jane O’Rourke; Corina Jackson De-Botte; Balladoole Civic Amenity Site.
