ABOUT
Expia Ltd is a charitable company limited by guarantee.
Expia works in partnership with the Prison Service, Ministry of Justice, and other organisations to deliver projects that support prisoners whilst they are serving their sentence. This enables them to learn new skills that will be transferable on their release with the aim of reducing re-offending.
As a charity we are firmly committed to serving the interests of our local communities, offer local employment opportunities and offer a high quality and affordable service to our customers.
Expia & the Jailhouse Brand
As a charity Expia introduced the Jailhouse brand to develop and establish workplace environments that can be used to offer risk assessed prisoners the opportunity to gain qualifications whist creating employment opportunities for people in our local communities.
The charity started with the Jailhouse Café at the Verne on Portland and a new Jailhouse Diner at the Grove Portland.
In recent years we have opened a Farm Shop on Portland to enable further training opportunities as well as creating more local employment.
All income generated from these facilities is reinvested to further develop our offer and support the services we provide.
Expia
Our mission statement has three distinct objectives:
- To reduce re-offending and offer ex-offenders the chance to re-join society in a meaningful way
- To provide local employment opportunities for ex-offenders and our residents throughout our operations
- To provide excellent customer service to everyone using our services and facilities.
Expia aims to reduce re-offending by:
- Providing employment and supporting the education and training of risk assessed prisoners at the jailhouse café, diner and gardens.
- Seeking links to next steps for external employment.
- Marketing products and services produced by prison workshops.
- Helping prisoners to make reparation for their crimes by volunteering and helping in the local community.
We want prisoners to not offend again when they leave prison and are committed to help those leaving custody lead useful and law abiding lives in the future.
We do this by:
- Supporting training and helping to create further employment opportunities.
- Providing a real work environment to develop and practice new skills.
- Helping individuals to develop and maintain family contacts.
- Signposting to other appropriate support mechanisms both inside the prison and upon release.
- Providing positive role models and signposting to mentors who can offer personal support.
About the Jailhouse Café and Diner
We exist to reduce reoffending and we have had over 130 prisoners on day release placed at the Jailhouse Café the Verne since it started in Nov 2012.
The men and volunteers working in the gardens at the Jailhouse Café the Verne have built raised beds and we will be using produce from them in the café.
We have professional staff who supervise, and train risk assessed prisoners and help create an environment that provides a route to qualifications, work experience in a real world setting and future employment possibilities.
The Food Hygiene Rating Scheme (FHRS) helps you choose where to eat out or shop for food by telling you how seriously the business takes their food hygiene standards.
Each business is given their hygiene rating when it is inspected by a food safety officer who checks how well the business is meeting the law by looking at:
- how hygienically the food is handled – how it is prepared, cooked, re-heated, cooled and stored
- the condition of the structure of the buildings – the cleanliness, layout, lighting, ventilation and other facilities
- how the business manages and records what it does to make sure food is safe
At the end of the inspection, the business is given one of the six ratings from 0-5. The top rating of ‘5’ means that the business was found to have ‘very good’ hygiene standards. The Jailhouse Café at the Verne has been rated 5.
Our Partnership with HMP Portland/YOI
HMP Portland/YOI are dedicated to reducing re-offending and continuously strive to find innovative ways to achieve this, alongside existing offending behaviour programmes. By developing new partnerships, introducing real work opportunities, creating improved relationships with families and identifying the right interventions at the right time we aim to make a positive impact for victims, offenders, their families and the wider community.
HMP Portland/YOI work closely with Expia Ltd and The Jailhouse by:
- Risk assessing suitable candidates to work outside and maintaining support and supervision where required.
- Working with Expia to support community projects to develop new links and partnerships for the prison and Expia Ltd.
- Providing security and prison awareness support for Expia Ltd volunteers and staff.
Board of Trustees
Expia delivers projects and services that support prisoners whilst they are serving their sentence. This enables them to learn new skills that will be transferable on their release with the aim of reducing re-offending.
It is important to the Trustees that we also provide employment opportunities for our local communities.
We want our customers to enjoy good affordable café food and experience efficient friendly customer service.
We strive to improve our offer, use local and home grown produce and enable meaningful employment for local people.
Expia has a volunteer Board of Trustees:
- Steve Butler Chairman
- Sally Birch
- Sue Munts
- Felix Durrant
- Graham Metcalfe
- Pete Lewis
Our Supporters and Friends
