JRAG at HMP Sudbury and The Secret Diner
October 02, 2026Posted by:
On 1 October, employers, criminal justice partners and community organisations spent a day at HMP Sudbury, a Category D open prison in Derbyshire, for a Justice Recruitment Advocacy Group (JRAG) employer event. They toured the education and industries workshops, heard from the Governor about employer requirements and strategic priorities, and listened to a lived experience account of Release on Temporary Licence (ROTL). Before anyone left, they handed over a commitment sheet: the actions they will take, who is involved, and a target date for each. Over the coming weeks the JRAG community will be working together to deliver these committments.
What the employer sees
Most employers have never stood inside a prison classroom. What they know about recruiting prison leavers tends to arrive second-hand, through policy summaries and risk assessments. In our experience, second-hand knowledge is where hesitation can persist. JRAG exists partly because employers have told us this directly: the barrier is rarely unwillingness, it is a lack of confidence built on a lack of contact.
A site visit replaces the abstraction with evidence. At HMP Sudbury, employers watched education and industries work happening in real time: people gaining qualifications, running catering at The Secret Diner, and building the kind of workplace habits that any hiring manager would recognise. Questions were answered directly, enabling employers to form a picture of the skills available to them and of how ROTL gives them a structured, supported way to offer work placements before release.
That is a commercial insight as much as a social one. The Governor's briefing carried the number that reframes the conversation: 72% of those leaving Sudbury are still in employment six months after release, against a national average of around 25%. Hercules Site Services, who train 1,500 people a year through their academy and have 23,000 candidates registered on their recruitment app, made the hiring case in plain terms: recruiting through ROTL carries no finder's fees, the candidates are motivated, and retention runs high. Managing risk is a priority at every stage, and employers in the room described the process as straightforward because HMP Sudbury manages it with them.
Amey, speaking about their own experience of employing serving prisoners, made the same case from the employer's side of the table. The common thread was commitment: this works for employers who come to build something lasting rather than to tick a box.
What the learners see
For the men taking part in education and industries work at HMP Sudbury, a room full of employers walking the workshops carries a message that no classroom poster can: the labour market is paying attention to what you are building.
Skills are only part of what someone needs to walk into a job after release. Just as valuable is the belief that there is a job to walk into, and that belief is built from evidence, the same way an employer's confidence is. An employer asking questions about your work is evidence. A hiring manager eating lunch that you prepared is evidence. Attention from the people who hold the vacancies says that the work being done inside connects to a future outside. The behaviours, attitude and motivation employers tell us they look for grow from there.
At the JRAG one of Hercule's Site Services ROTL employees Marc, spoke of his experience. He shared how he completed his qualification and a skills bootcamp at Sudbury, and now works on ROTL as a trainer in the Hercules academy, studying towards his assessor and teaching qualifications. Speaking to the room, he described a job for life and what it has meant for him and his family, and he thanked the Sudbury staff who got him there. A man who was shown attention now gives it for a living, training the next intake and standing as proof in person that the route works.
Why JRAG builds days like this
The JRAG brings employers, specialist partners and prison stakeholders together to close two gaps: programmes that operate in silos, and employers who want to recruit prison leavers but lack the confidence to start. A prison visit opens the door and the structure around it is what turns a good day into hiring.
That structure was visible at HMP Sudbury. The working session asked every attendee to agree next-step actions across four themes, attract, retain, develop and community, with a particular focus on committing vacancies. Every commitment sheet carries a named action, the people involved and a target date, and every one was made in a room of peers. Public commitment among people who will keep meeting is a real accountability mechanism, and over the coming weeks the JRAG community will be working together to deliver on what was written down.
The next step that's right for you
Attendees at the JRAG came to listen and learn, building the internal case for a step some haven't been ready to take and is there to support employers through every stage of their journey. Starting from the first prison visit, the first ROTL placement, the first hire, and the workplace culture that makes the second and third hires easier than the first.
If reading this has you wondering what a day inside a prison workshop would show your organisation, that curiosity is the starting point. We would be glad to help you follow it.
October 02, 2026Posted by:
