World's best prison food?

The Clink Charity has opened its third restaurant at Brixton Prison in south London. The trainees, all prisoners in their final six to 18 months before release, work 40-hour weeks to gain qualifications to find employment after serving their time.

Alberto Crisci, former chef at the London's Michelin-starred Mirabelle restaurant (now closed), is the brand and training director of the project. The project has also been supported by celebrity chef ambassadors Antonio Carluccio and Giorgio Locatelli.

The new restaurant serves a compact menu of upscale European food. Five meeting rooms can accommodate up to 24 people for working lunches.

Brixton Prison was in the culinary limelight in 2012 when celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay taught 12 inmates to cook on the British TV series "Gordon Behind Bars."

The Clink Restaurant at High Down was the first restaurant established by the charity in May 2009. As a category B prison, High Down is the most secure of the three prisons involved, and requires diners to undergo intensive security checks before entering.

Though a category C prison, the Brixton restaurant has security similar to that at High Down. Phones and cameras are taken away prior to entering the prison. Cutlery is plastic and alcohol, served in controlled measures, is available only on special occasions.

Security at the restaurant in Cardiff -- a category D prison -- is more relaxed. The restaurant is next to the prison rather than within its walls, allowing diners metal cutlery. But still no alcohol.

According to the December 2012 edition of Bromley Briefings Prison Factfile, 12.5% of graduates of The Clink program in 2011 re-offended. The national average was 47%.

Many of the ingredients for the restaurants are grown or obtained locally. High Down Prison has its own working farm, which provides produce to the other restaurants in the scheme.

The Clink Charity plans to have 10 training restaurants operating in UK prisons by 2017.

• Clink Restaurant Brixton is third and latest prison dining experience to open in UK


• Clink Charity plans to open another seven across UK prisons


• Diners undergo stringent security checks, including fingerprinting and possible pat downs

(CNN) -- Your phone's confiscated.

Your fingerprints are taken.

You're going to prison.

But don't worry, it's just for lunch.

The Clink Charity opened its third restaurant this week inside Brixton Prison in south London.

The meals are cooked and served by actual prisoners at restaurants located inside prison walls as part of a training and qualification program to help them prepare for life on the outside.

The venue is the third to open under the scheme, joining enterprises at Cardiff Prison in Wales and High Down Prison in Surrey.

Aimed at high-end diners, the prison restaurants are open to the public from Monday to Friday, for breakfast and lunch.

"The Clink at HMP Brixton isn't simply a new restaurant opening in London," says Chris Moore, chief executive at The Clink Charity.

"We're offering a credible solution to a major skills shortage within the industry as well as tackling the problem of re-offending."

The new London restaurant will serve a compact menu of upscale European food.

There are also five meeting rooms for working lunches for up to 24 people.

Guest treatment

The career history of the chefs and the prison environs aren't the only unique traits.

Booking at one of the Clink Restaurants must be done at least 48 hours in advance and guests must be 18 years or older.

Passports or other form of ID is needed to gain entry, and phones, cameras, large bags, laptops and sharp items are prohibited.

You're not even allowed to bring in more than $80 in cash -- payment for the meal is done by check or prearranged invoice.

You'll have your fingerprints and photo taken and may be subject to "routine searching."

"This would be similar to what you might expect in an airport," the guidelines and security procedures state.

The heavy rules apparently aren't putting people off.

Some 18,000 people ate at The Clink Restaurants in Cardiff and High Down last year, according to the organization, paying around $35 per head for three courses and a coffee.

The original Clink restaurant at High Down Prison.

How it works

The charity started in 2009 as the brainchild of Alberto Crisci, previously a chef at the Mirabelle restaurant in Mayfair, London (closed since 2008).

He's now the brand and training director for the project.

High Down Prison is a category B prison (in the UK, category A prisons are most secure, category D facilities are "open prisons"), and as such requires special measures.

Diners need to be approved in advance by the Home Office, the cutlery is plastic and alcohol is served in small measures and only on special occasions.

In almost every other respect, it's a restaurant comparable to any high-end establishment in London.

Brixton is a category C prison while Cardiff is a category D. The restaurant at Cardiff is attached to the prison, rather than within its walls.

Chefs and servers involved in these projects are all prisoners with between six and 18 months of their sentences remaining.

Trainees work full-time -- a 40-hour week -- studying toward nationally recognized City & Guilds National Vocational Qualifications (NVQ) in food preparation, front-of-house service and industrial cleaning, before returning to their cells in the evening.

The Brixton addition is the third of what will eventually be 10 prison restaurants across the UK within the next three years.

"The Clink Charity, in partnership with HMPS, plans to have 10 training sites in operation across the prison estate by 2017," says Moore.

So far they're working.

According to the December 2012 edition of Bromley Briefings Prison Factfile, in 2011 12.5% of graduates of The Clink program re-offended. The national average was 47%.

But it's not cheap.

Crisci raised more than £300,000 ($500,000) in private funding to start the project.

And it's not yet profitable.

"Each Clink restaurant operates at a loss of circa £150,000 ($250,000) per year due to them being training restaurants and the mentoring work which is provided to the graduates for six to 12 months after their release," says Moore.

"We receive financial support from philanthropic individuals, HMPS and the government.

"This, and the money from people dining in the restaurant and the purchasing of Clink products, helps to reduce the deficit."

This is a prison tray? The Clink's food is on par with many other high-end eateries.

The food

Locally grown and sourced ingredients are used whenever possible.

The meats at Brixton Prison come from a local butcher, for example, while High Downs Prison supplies many of the vegetables used in the project from its own farm.

Prisoners at High Down also get to apply to work toward an NVQ in Horticulture and Gardening.

Dishes are contemporary and European in provenance, and the menu changes every quarter or for special events.

Sample dishes for Brixton Prison include hot crab and smoked mackerel pancake rolls, herb crusted pork chops and woodland wild mushroom and artichoke lasagne.

Further rehabilitation projects

Guardian columnist and convicted murderer Erwin James supports the charity.

James was released in 2004 after serving 20 years of a life sentence.

"For me, there can never be enough rehabilitative initiatives in our prisons. Rehabilitation means fewer potential victims of released prisoners," he tells CNN via email.

"It's just a shame the government relies on charities such as The Clink to provide those initiatives.

"The Clink restaurants vastly increase the likelihood that those who take part will discover, or rediscover, the satisfaction of having a skill to provide a service that makes them feel good about themselves."

There are other charity restaurant schemes in the UK.

In 2002, Jamie Oliver opened his first Fifteen restaurant in London to train unemployed young people as apprentice chefs.

Fifteen restaurants have subsequently opened in Amsterdam and Cornwall.

The Brigade seeks to help those who have experienced or are at risk of homelessness in London.

But for some, the cost of running these schemes is too high.

The Hoxton Apprentice, opened in London in 2004, closed in 2012 as the charity behind the project went into administration.

The Clink Charity has no plans to expand beyond the UK.

The Clink Restaurants (Brixton, Cardiff and High Downs) are available for booking at The Clink Charity .