How to lower your teen's stress

When Traci Garcia's 19-year-old daughter feels super stressed out, Garcia (the co-owner of a spa) treats her to a facial. "It's a full hour of uninterrupted relaxation that she appreciates," said Garcia of Harwood Heights, Illinois.

Lori Lite, founder of Stress Free Kids, encourages her teens to use visualization techniques to relax. Here, her son is seen jumping off a cliff, the result, she says, of "visualizing and affirming that 'I can do it' and expecting and visualizing a positive outcome."

Ivan Baker of Brooklyn, New York, shared his answer to helping a stressful teen: "Hand them a 4-year-old sister. That works for us."

Author and fatherhood advocate Jim Higley, founder of the site Bobblehead Dad, says he gives his high schooler foot rubs several times a day. "I'm serious. It totally calms him down ... and if it works for him, it works for me," said Higley of Chicago.

When Lisa Katzman's 17-year-old son and 13-year-old daughter are feeling stressed, one of the things the Chantilly, Virginia, mom does is encourage them to hang out with Ted, their wheaten terrier, especially while doing homework.

Deborah Zupancic, founder of the site Parenting Renewed, shared a photo of her son, a high school junior, who fell asleep at the dining room table while doing his homework. She says: "Communication between parent and teen is crucial. These kids need to be taught how to navigate through stressful situations, so they bring these tools into adulthood."

Mona Steinberg said she helps her teenage daughters cope with stress by always being available to chat. "When they want to talk, drop everything you are doing and listen. As they get older, their desire to talk to their parents decreases, so treasure the moments when they do want to share and talk," she said.

Author Deborah Copaken Kogan came up with the idea of mom-daughter guitar lessons as a break from the hours of homework her daughter gets at her highly competitive high school. "We smile when we play. We beam, in fact. The oxytocin flows between us just like it did when I fed her as a baby. It's been a lifesaver and a gift. I wish I'd thought of it sooner," said the mom of three.

Jeanna Hale, mom of five including two teens and a 15-month-old, said teens today don't know how to unplug. "I insist on (a) technology-free family dinner. I also stick to a structure - teens need it. Chores, free time, clear expectations. And I talk to (my daughter) all the time - even when it drives her crazy."

Katie Danziger, founder of Nomie Baby, which offers unique car seat covers among other products, heads to the kitchen to lower stress for her daughters, age 18 and 7 (pictured here). "Baking is always a good one, and then the benefits of the great smells from the oven reinforce the ahhhh," the New York mom of three said.

Author and comedian Sarah Maizes, mom to three including an almost 14-year-old, also does plenty of baking to combat stress. "Nothing like making a batch of blondies from scratch - cracking, beating and bombarding the batter with M&M's and chocolate chunks - to let off some steam," she said.

Merin Dahlerbruch says whenever her 17-year-old son is angry, stressed or down, he picks up his trumpet. "It gives him something else to focus on and allows him a fresh start. We love that he is already learning how to handle stress on his own, which hopefully will set him out on a good path for his life," she added.

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• Nearly 40% of parents say their kids are stressed from school, according to a new poll


• Growing up with social media means today's teens have less time to truly unplug


• Parents contribute to kids' stress by not knowing how to cope with their own, experts say


• Mindfulness activities such as "quiet time" are helping students lower their stress at school

Editor's note: Kelly Wallace is CNN's digital correspondent and editor-at-large covering family, career and life. Read her other columns and follow her reports at CNN Parents and on Twitter.

(CNN) -- Ask parents of teens if their children are more stressed than they were at the same age, and they'll usually tell you, "Absolutely."

"I went to a high school that at the time was considered one of the 10 best high schools in the country, and I think in high school I had less advanced work than they have now," said Nancy Friedman of New York, referring to her 13-year-old twins,

"They are writing real research papers ... much more is expected of them," said Friedman, who is co-founder of a video sharing platform for tweens called KidzVuz.

Teens are feeling the pressure of more demanding curriculum, longer homework sessions, high-stakes testing and more competitive college admissions, according to a new poll.

The poll, conducted by NPR along with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Harvard School of Public Health, found that nearly 40% of parents said their high school kids are experiencing a lot of stress from school.

"They have to do their AP (advanced placement) work, they have to be in honors classes, and it's not just enough to be in them, but they have to excel," said Jaclyn Bealer, who spends her summers training teens to be counselors at a camp in Branchville, New Jersey.

"They're just putting so much pressure on themselves to get the absolute best grade possible, and anything under a 90% is failure," said Bealer.

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Friedman, the mom of twins, knows that firsthand. Her daughter Rachel "literally will be upset if she gets a 98 instead of 100 on something," she said during a family interview at her home.

"I do not like getting below a 100," Rachel admitted with a laugh.

Social media adds to the stress

Today's teens, unlike when I was growing up, can now compare their academic performance and everything else about their existence to other teens 24 hours a day through updates on Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, you name the social network, and that only increases the stress.

"Back in the day, we got a break from our peers after school and on the weekends, but now kids are on social media all day long," said Linda Esposito, a licensed clinical social worker and psychotherapist in Los Angeles and host of a blog on psychotherapy called Talk Therapy Biz.

READ: The upside of selfies: Social media isn't all bad for kids

Daniel Goleman, a psychologist and author of the New York Times best-seller "Emotional Intelligence," says all the social media and advanced technology mean more distractions for kids and less time to truly unplug.

"It used to be that children had time to look at clouds and imagine," said Goleman, whose latest book is "Focus: The Hidden Driver of Excellence." "Now they're looking at video games and are competing with some kid in Hong Kong."

Pressure from parents

Teens aren't just feeling stress from academic pressures. Their schedules are also filled with activities and sports after school and on weekends, raising questions for us parents about whether our children are overscheduled and whether we, as parents, are pushing them to do too much.

"There's a little fallacy that we have to enrich our children's experience with every kind of lesson and every kind of sport and every kind of club, and that backfires at a certain point," said Goleman.

Parents who want the best for their kids get into trouble when it becomes like "over-wanting," said Ben Bernstein, a stress psychologist and author of "A Teen's Guide to Success: How to be Calm, Confident & Focused" as well as a book about stress-reduction techniques for test-taking.

READ: How not to be a scary stage parent

"It could be their own self-esteem is tied into that. It could be that they didn't have the kind of chances that their child had," said Bernstein, who says parents sometimes also have their own hopes and goals for their child that might not mesh with what the child wants to do.

"In that sense, they lose touch with what is happening with their kid," he said.

Bealer, the camp supervisor, says plenty of teens feel like their parents don't give them space to be themselves.

"One of the biggest things that I hear is kids don't necessarily feel that they're being listened to, and that they're being told a lot of what to do," she said.

What they get at camp, she says, is "just having someone to listen to them and not judge them for maybe what their dreams may be or what they're worried about, not minimalizing their worries."

Parents also contribute to their teens' stress by not figuring out how to cope with their own stress, said Lori Lite, who created the parenting site Stress Free Kids after the stresses of parenting were starting to make her sick.

"Many parents demonstrate unhealthy coping mechanisms and live a full-blown stressed out lifestyle," said Lite. "Teens learn and internalize these messages."

READ: Overscheduled kids, anxious parents

How to lower the stress

CNN's Kelly Wallace talked to parents, teens, psychologists and other experts about why our teens are feeling so stressed.

Now that we know some of the reasons why our teens may be feeling more stressed out than we did as kids, what can we do about it?

We asked CNN's Facebook community and received a ton of great tips included in the gallery above, everything from Merin Dahlerbruch of Rancho Palos Verdes, California encouraging her 17-year-old to pick up a trumpet to Traci Garcia of Harwood Heights, Illinois, giving her daughter a facial.

We also heard a lot about teaching our children how to relax, through breathing exercises and meditation.

In fact, several schools, including one in San Francisco, have adopted what's called "quiet time," during which students meditate for 10 to 15 minutes in the morning and again in the afternoon. Some schools that have implemented the new approach report a decline in absences and suspensions, and an increase in test scores.

READ: Managing your child's stress

"Regardless of socioeconomic status or race or the type of school, public or private, I think that kids in general need to be taught how to relax, how to breathe appropriately to calm themselves, how to recognize the signs of stress," said Esposito, who uses mindfulness exercises with many of her patients.

Lite, the founder of Stress Free Kids, is a big proponent of breathing, relaxation and visualization exercises for parents and children.

When her daughter went to high school, she said, the principal "began to brag" about the amount of stress teens would experience as freshmen. Her husband wrote her a note asking, "Are they going to teach them how to manage the stress?" she told me.

Don't miss out on the conversation we're having at CNN Living. Follow us on Twitter and Facebook for the latest stories and tell us what's influencing your life.

That's when Lite decided to create a CD for teens to help them manage anxiety and stress.

"If you watch teens take tests or you watch them play video games, if you watch carefully, you will also see them stop breathing," said Bernstein, the stress expert.

"Teaching kids to be calmer in their body by breathing, by learning how to keep themselves grounded, simple techniques of meditation ... things that we know work in terms of stress reduction, we should be teaching that stuff in school and parents should be doing it."

Follow Kelly Wallace on Twitter, and like CNN Living on Facebook.

American follows growing trend

• American isn't the first airline to end bereavement fares


• Southwest Airlines and JetBlue Airways never had such discounts


• Delta Air Lines and United Airlines are keeping bereavement policies in place

(CNN) -- The bereavement fare was once the airline industry's gift to the traveler, an acknowledgement that a customer was flying for the saddest of reasons: a medical emergency or death in the family.

The last thing anyone wanted to worry about was the cost of an airplane ticket. And so many airlines offered discounts to help ease the pain of the journey.

Not so much anymore.

In the wake of its merger with US Airways, American Airlines this week became the latest major U.S. airline to end its policy of offering bereavement fares. US Airways didn't offer the special fares before the merger, and American's new chief executive officer, Douglas Parker, came from the ranks of US Airways.

"We remain committed to doing all we can to relieve the burden of travel for our customers in times of need. With the advent of more choices, lower cost carriers and larger networks, the industry has started to move away from bereavement fares because walk-up fares are generally lower than in the past, and customers now have more opportunities to find affordable fares at the last minute," American spokesman Matt Miller said in a statement. "American is moving toward that industry trend and the airline offers customers changeable and refundable options with the ability to apply future reservations to bereavement travel without change fees. We believe this policy is a cost-effective solution for customers in need of bereavement travel."

Except for possibly waiving the change fee, the new policy doesn't sound so different from what American offers other customers.

But not every carrier is going the way of American, at least not yet. Delta Air Lines and United Airlines are keeping their current bereavement policies in place.

'Better service' for consumers promised

Before the US Airways-American merger was approved last year, Parker, then the US Airways CEO, testified before Congress that consumers would benefit from such consolidation. "By putting these two airlines together we're able to provide better service, more efficient service, to consumers," Parker said.

It remains to be seen if consumers will agree with his sentiments, but American isn't breaking new ground with this particular policy change.

Making planes in the world's biggest building

Discount carriers Southwest Airlines (and its AirTran brand) and JetBlue Airways have never offered bereavement fares.

"Offering bereavement or emergency fares would make it necessary to offset these discounts by charging higher ticket prices and reducing the amount of sale fares we currently offer," Southwest spokesman Dan Landson said.

Southwest doesn't charge fees to change an existing reservation, just the price difference between the current and new tickets, Landson said.

Cheaper online fares can be found

Frequent travelers know that better fares can usually be found online for last-minute emergency travel, according to travel blogger Johnny "Jet" DiScala. That's why he said the change won't have much of an impact.

"It does make the airlines look heartless," DiScala said. "I've known people who didn't travel to a loved one's funeral because they couldn't afford the last-minute ticket."

Consumers Union aviation consultant William McGee, who testified before Congress last year on the potential impact of the USAirways-American merger, said he isn't surprised by the policy change.

"It's a natural outgrowth of a shrinking industry since consolidation leads to fewer choices, higher fares, and less service," McGee wrote via e-mail. "Unfortunately, consumers should expect this trend to continue as the domestic airline industry rapidly consolidates through mergers and acquisitions."

Disney's Magic Kingdom raises prices

Discounts at United, Delta

Still, Delta and United remain holdouts.

Delta's bereavement policy, which "offers additional flexibility on the best published fare," lists the documentation required and the types of relatives who qualify on its website. The airline reminds customers that lower promotional fares may be available through its website or airline reservations service.

United offers a 5% discount on one-way and round-trip fares in the event of the death or serious illness (requiring hospitalization or hospice care) of an immediate family member. Its website lists the airline's requirements to qualify for the airfare.

Five percent off a $1,000 ticket still isn't much -- $50 -- so it's possible that consumers would still be better off searching online for the best deals.

But even with such a small benefit as United's, maybe it's the thought that airlines recognize their grieving customers that counts.

CNN first learned about this story via Twitter.

What do you think of American changing its bereavement policy? Please tell us in the comments section below.

CNN's Mike Ahlers and Aaron Cooper contributed to this report.

World's coolest underground wonders

Take a guided rafting trip to explore the five-mile-long Puerto Princesa Underground River in the Philippines.

This former salt mine, excavated by hand since the 13th century, is now a museum and wellness and recreation center.

Visit in summer to explore this volcano, which last erupted 4,000 years ago.

The Poço Encantado (Enchanted Well) in Brazil is an underground lake with a window to the Bahian jungle above.

Massive beams of selenite dwarf explorers in the Cave of Crystals.

Take a boat ride to explore caves filled with New Zealand's indigenous glowworms. Their blue glow is caused by a chemical reaction in their abdomens.

The posh Greenbrier resort has a secret: a bunker built in 1956 to house members of Congress should nuclear war break out.

Visit the Capuchin ossuary beneath the church of Santa Maria della Concezione, where the bones of 4,000 monks decorate the crypt.

A Sicilian immigrant built this subterranean home and garden modeled after the ancient catacombs of his homeland.

The Cabinet War Rooms -- part of the Churchill War Rooms museum -- preserves many day-to-day artifacts used by British leaders during World War II.

• Explore the inner chamber of Iceland's Thrihnukagigur Volcano


• Visitors to Brazil's Poço Encantado lake can see more than 200 feet to the bottom


• Some of the world's largest natural crystals can be found in Mexico

(Travel + Leisure) -- Jules Verne understood it best: you can fly around the world in 80 days and dive 20,000 leagues under the sea, but you can also find awesome otherworldly adventures right beneath your feet.

Just ask the Mexican miners who discovered a sweltering cavern filled with crystals as tall as apartment buildings, or the Brazilians who first gazed into Poço Encantado, a cave with a lake so clear you lose all sense of perspective looking into its depths. Mother Nature knows what she's doing when it comes to creating cool underground attractions.

Mankind isn't so bad at it either. Turkey's ancient city of Derinkuyu is thought to have housed 20,000 people 18 stories inside a mountain. And in Luxor's Valley of the Kings, the Tomb of Seti I's sheer size and extensive Book of the Dead bas-reliefs would make any aspiring Egyptologist cry mummy.

Ready to discover some of the earth's coolest underground sights? Here's where to start digging.

Travel + Leisure: World's coolest new tourist attractions

Puerto Princesa Underground River, Philippines

A UNESCO World Heritage site, this five-mile-long underground river lies beneath a limestone karst mountain on the island of Palawa, connecting the Cabayugan River's flow to the South China Sea. The surrounding national park protects eight different forest systems, from mountains to beaches, and is a naturalist's dream with a multitude of plant species (800 and counting) and vibrant animal life. While underground on guided rafting trips, visitors enter several large chambers, some as wide as 390 feet and almost 200 feet high, as well as passageways with a more claustrophobic fit. puerto-undergroundriver.com

Turda Salt Mines, Romania

Excavated by hand since the 13th century -- although perhaps as early at 1075 -- the massive Turda Salt Mines in Transylvania is now a subterranean museum and recreation center with basketball hoops, a mini-golf course, Ferris wheel, and even an underground lake you can go boating on. From mine mouth to dome's floor is a staggering 368 feet underground. Those with allergies and asthma will be especially interested in the mine's halotherapy spa facilities, which use ionized air, pressure, and humidity in the salt-lined caves to treat persistent respiratory problems. salinaturda.eu

Magma Chamber of Thrihnukagigur Volcano, Iceland

Joe Versus the Volcano this is not -- no need for human sacrifice to see the inner chamber of Thrihnukagigur Volcano, which has been dormant for 4,000 years. Instead of erupting, the magma mysteriously drained away, leaving behind psychedelic mineral colorations geological geeks can gawk at today. After a hike across lava fields, visitors are whisked 390 feet into the volcano's maw by a cable car. Tours usually occur between June and July, but can be extended beyond that period. insidethevolcano.com

Travel + Leisure: Coolest underwater attractions

Poço Encantado, Brazil

Set along the eastern border of the Chapada Diamantina range near Andaraí in northeast Brazil, the Poço Encantado (Enchanted Well) is an underground lake with a natural window out to the Bahian jungle above. Between April and September, when the sun is at just the right spot in the sky, the light hitting the water in the cave turns it a deep, mysterious blue. The water is so clear that one can see more than 200 feet to the bottom, where ancient tree trunks and rock formations appear disorientingly close.

Cave of the Crystals, Mexico

La Cueva de los Cristales was discovered in the Naica Mine near Chihuahua in 2000 after water was pumped out of the 30-by-90-foot chamber, and there's nothing else like it on -- or under -- earth. The crisscrossing gypsum columns are some of the world's largest natural crystals. Despite its grandeur, visits are nearly impossible to come by due to dangerous conditions: near 100-percent humidity and temperatures as high as 136 degrees, warmed by a pool of magma sitting below the cave. There's even been talk of refilling it with water. naica.com.mx

Waitomo Glowworm Caves, New Zealand

The real-life setting for a glow-in-the-dark sci-fi spectacular is two hours south of Auckland and the same distance west of Rotorua under Waitomo's rolling green hills. Here caves are filled with arachnocampa luminosa (that's New Zealand's indigenous glowworms to you) that give off a subtle blue glow due to a chemical reaction occurring in their abdomen. Enjoy a boat ride that will take you through this galaxy of living lights, strong on sticky webs above. waitomo.com

Travel + Leisure: World's coolest tree house hotels

Greenbrier Bunker, White Sulphur Springs, WV

Indulge in a little espionage while visiting the Allegheny Mountain's posh Greenbrier resort, where a bunker was secretly built in 1956 to house members of Congress should nuclear war break out. Now declassified, the fallout shelter could have accommodated more than 1,100 people behind 25-ton blast doors; today, it's a time capsule of Cold War hubris. The unused bunker came equipped with a power plant, decontamination chambers, communications equipment, meeting rooms, and a great hall for joint sessions -- all over two football-field-size levels.

San Clemente Basilica and Santa Maria della Concezione dei Cappuccini, Rome

Uncover eons of religious belief at San Clemente Basilica, a 12th-century basilica built on top of a many-frescoed fourth-century church -- itself built over a secular first-century home that stands next to a second-century temple used by an all-male fertility cult worshiping the sun god Mithras. Those with darker leanings can explore the Capuchin ossuary underneath the church of Santa Maria della Concezione, a 10-minute walk away, where the bones of 4,000 monks were used to artistically decorate the crypt in the form of chandeliers, coats of arms, and archways. Keep a lookout for a toddler's skeleton turned flying grim reaper. basilicasanclemente.com

Forestiere Underground Gardens, Fresno, CA

From 1906 to 1946, Sicilian immigrant Baldassare Forestiere built himself a subterranean home and garden modeled after the ancient catacombs of his homeland. The intrepid builder and gardener dug some 10,000 square feet of rooms, a chapel, and even an underground fishing pond using just farming tools. Forestiere's 10-acre creation provides a cool respite from the scorching California sun, with blooming fruit trees reaching to skylights above.

Cabinet War Rooms, London

Across the Atlantic, another secret underground bunker got a lot of use as the nerve center of the British war effort in World War II. Occupied by ministers, military personnel, and Prime Minister Winston Churchill from 1939 to 1945, the Cabinet War Rooms -- part of the Churchill War Rooms museum -- preserves many of the day-to-day artifacts used in that period, from large maps full of pinpricks indicating changing front lines down to the swivel chair Churchill used while presiding over the War Cabinet.

See all of the world's coolest underground wonders

Planning a getaway? Don't miss Travel + Leisure's guide to the World's Best Hotels

Copyright 2012 American Express Publishing Corporation. All rights reserved.

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 .