Domini Kemp is teaching the ‘true meaning of rehabilitation’ in Ireland’s prisons

Domini Kemp has never felt threatened by an inmate in Dublin's Wheatfield Prison.

Rather, she jokes, it's more likely to be the other way around. Since 2016, the chef and food writer has run Wheatfield's inmate entrepreneurship programme. Proven to reduce recidivism rates and provide offenders with practical and employable skills, the course teaches prisoners the value of business studies while encouraging their resourcefulness to be used in ways that are, in fact, law-abiding. Kemp first became interested in the idea of harnessing prisoners' often innate entrepreneurial tendencies when she heard of a similar programme being run in a prison in Texas. There, reoffending rates had dropped by 20 percent since the programme began, meaning fewer crimes were being committed - and fewer people were passing through the system.

“It was around the same time I read that prisoners in Ireland cost north of €68,000, so the whole thing kind of struck a chord with me," says Kemp. "I thought that if you could teach them how to start their own business, what could you save?"

Next Wednesday, audiences will be given their first glimpse of Wheatfield's entrepreneurial programme in Virgin Media One's new series, Prison Breaks.  Each year, the course runs for about 16 weeks with prisoners attending classes for about 30 - 40 hours. According to Kemp, the programme is as much about educating prisoners as it is about educating the public - and potential employers.

“There is a recognition that for a lot of people, prison doesn’t necessarily serve them the best way," she says.

“When you want to get your life back on track after prison but you’re constantly having the door slammed in your face, what choice do you have but to revert [to crime]?"

No stranger to high pressure and often tense working environments, Kemp says that her experience of teaching in prison hasn't been all that dissimilar to some of her past jobs.

"Kitchens are places that people hide in and often do have troubled pasts," she says. “I’ve always felt very comfortable here.

"People have this stereotypical view of prison because they watch too many American films. They think everybody’s going to get stabbed just walking down a corridor. It’s just not like that.

"There was also the sense that from the get go, I was taking this seriously and I expected [the inmates] to take it seriously too. You have to trust the resources here. They’re not going to put me in a situation where people are going to cause difficulty."

If any prisoners did cause difficult, they'd lose their place on the course. And seeing as Kemp's programme has only generated more and more interest from inmates as the years have gone on, for some being kicked out isn't an option.

A programme that was once treated with suspicion by prisoners soon had a considerable waiting list; comprised of men who wanted to avoid wasting their sentence and put the spare time they had to good use. Wheatfield Governor Martin O'Neill says that, for many men, being in prison can be an opportunity.

“We meet lads who come in here and maybe it’s their first time in prison, and they think that their life is over," he says.

"But it’s far from over (...) We say to them: you’re here in prison so let’s use your time as an opportunity to address the changes you need to make.

"It’s an opportunity to work on what has lead them into the criminal justice system, and for us to look at what we can do to get them back out - and stay out." https://twitter.com/VirginMedia_One/status/1225509469439877120?s=20 Kemp's class isn't the only source of education that Wheatfield's inmates are afforded either. The prison operates several workshops dedicated towards more traditional trades, including both a metal and construction workshop - the latter of which is studded with intricate headstones, designed and crafted by prisoners to later give to family members outside. The workshop teaches tiling, bricklaying and other trade skills that are invaluable to those seeking employment once they are released. Upstairs there's the prison school, where this year around two dozen men are studying to sit their Junior and Leaving Cert. The hallways are no different to those found in a standard school, proudly displaying inmates' artwork and information about other training courses. One wall holds a poster advertising a DJ set. Visitors would almost be forgiven for forgetting that they're walking through a prison at all, if it weren't for the constant locking of iron gates and the barbed wire fences outside. Kemp takes this same approach when working with the inmates on her programme. She doesn't ask the men what they've done. As far as she's concerned, she's there to teach and they're there to learn.

“The main thing that people get out of the programme is self confidence," she says.

"I don’t see them as prisoners, I’m here to teach a business course. I’m not interested in what they’ve done, I’m not interested in the back story. This is about finding a good business idea and developing that."

However, Kemp says that she recognises her viewpoint may not be entirely shared by other members of the public, as well as potential employers - some of whom might be victims of crime themselves. "What this course made me do was question our own HR policies and say: what would our approach be? And what would happen?" she says.

“There are absolutely a lot of people that need to be kept away from society and people that society needs to be kept safe from, but there’s actually a lot of people in here that need to be doing a lot more of [these programmes].

"That is the true meaning of rehabilitation."

The first episode of Prison Breaks airs on Wednesday, February 12 at 10pm on Virgin Media One.