When Australian singer-songwriter Paul Kelly wrote How to Make Gravy—a song about a man in prison writing home at Christmastime—in 1996, he probably couldn’t have imagined prisons kitted out with full commercial bakeries where prisoners make bread, pastry, cakes, sausage rolls and pies—and indeed, the gravy. But that is exactly what inmates at several Australian and international prisons are doing, getting training, experience, jobs and a second chance through baking.

Reg Boys Bakery, Long Bay Correctional Complex

Images courtesy of Corrective Services NSW

Reg Boys Bakery, located about 14km out of Sydney’s CBD, runs seven days a week, with bakers rising early to bake 4,000 loaves of bread each day—using a mammoth 10 tonnes of flour a week—as well as other common bakery products like meat pies, sausage rolls and cakes.

It sounds like a regular commercial bakery; however, Reg Boys Bakery is situated within the Long Bay Correctional Complex in Malabar, New South Wales. A maximum- and minimum-security prison for males and females, Long Bay is managed by the NSW Department of Corrective Services which has a truly modern approach to food and incarceration.

From St Heliers Correctional Centre where seasonal fruit and vegetables are grown and processed, to bakery business units at Long Bay and Wellington Correctional Centres, to the Emu Plains Correctional Centre where the dairy processing unit produced 5,000 litres of milk per day, Corrective Services Industries (CSI) operates across a number of NSW prisons to truly take food from paddock to plate.

The program produces 30,000 meals a day, with specialist food service and packaging units cooking, freezing and packaging meals in an operation that not only creates opportunities for inmates to gain skills and even qualifications, but also cuts costs to tax payers by making these facilities self-sufficient.

Rather than just processing pre-mixed ingredients, inmates in the bakery units learn the science behind making bread. Reg Boys Bakery business unit manager, Mark Yates, says it’s rewarding to know prisoners are taking transferrable skills with them post-release.

“For me personally, it’s about knowing the inmate who you spent a bit of time with in here has been able to gain successful employment in a chosen field,” he says.

“The inmates use their skills they’ve learnt in prison and utilise them on the outside to gain wilful employment, which is fantastic.”

For the inmates themselves, the rewards come not only in the new skills they gain and confidence in working, but also in the food itself, with Mr Yates saying the most popular item is the beef sausage rolls.

“A lot of inmates are young men that like to keep fit and healthy,” he says.

“Protein is important to these guys and the most protein they get out of our products is through a beef sausage roll. They love meat.”

Junee Correctional Centre Bakery

Over at Junee Correctional Centre, which is privately run by GEO Group Australia, bakery overseer Lori-Ann Ford has just finished the lunch rush with her “boys”, as she affectionately refers to the maximum-security inmates she manages, and says taking on the role is the best thing she’s ever done.

“It’s amazing—some of these boys will actually have a Certificate III in Baking when they leave here, so they’ll know how to make things from scratch,” she says.

“The boys here thrive on it; they just aim to please. They have so much pride in their work.

Asked whether she had any hesitation or concerns for her own safety, Lori-Ann is quick to answer.

“No, not at all. As long as I’m in the bakery, I have an officer with me and he looks after me, not that I need looking after—the boys have my back 100 per cent,” she says.

“I started in October 2020 and we’ve been fully operational since February last year and we haven’t had any incidents so far.

“They’re like little kindergarten kids—they need praise and pats on the back. They have a good day and they say, ‘Can we have a treat?’”

In addition to 750 loaves of bread baked each day, the bakery workers at Junee Correctional produce product ordered by the kitchen, like hotdog rolls, and cater for outside functions.

“For International Nurses’ Day we did a function for the hospital and just donated everything over there,” Lori-Ann says.

“And then we’ve got the Australia’s Biggest Morning Tea this Friday and we’re doing a lamington drive.”

The inmates aren’t just on their best behaviour when they’re with Lori in the bakery, either. In fact, Lori-Ann says that after starting work, their behaviour outside the bakery walls tends to improve drastically.

“We’ve got inmates in here where their case notes were not the greatest before they came into the bakery, but now that they’re working and have purpose and they’re showing pride in their work, they want to come to work,” she says.

“If they misbehave down there they can’t come back to work.”

Lori-Ann also says they’re reliable, tend to take fewer sick days, and just need a chance to prove themselves.

“From where I’m standing, I’d hire any of them on the outside,” she says.

And this is exactly what former bakery owner Pete O’Brien did. Before retiring and handing over the reins of O’Brien’s Wagga Hot Bake to his son, Pete estimates he hired around 10 ex-offenders over the course of 20 years and, like Lori-Ann, found them to be very reliable.

After starting out donating leftover product to a rehab centre, Pete says he started to get some volunteers who were ex-inmates and parolees. After volunteering, they’d be offered full-time and part-time work.

“They’ve just been excellent, they really have been,” Pete says.

“To tell you the truth, I’ve had some pretty dangerous types of men—and ladies—there, but I’ve never had a problem with any of them. I feel that they try harder than anybody else, they’re really dedicated to what they do, and they’re just beautiful people. They really are.”

Prior to her role at the Correctional Centre, Lori-Ann worked in the bakery at Woolworths, and had also spent around 12 years working with Pete, who had joined her on the day we spoke to check out the facility.

“Just coming over here today with Lori and having a look at what they’re doing here, this is incredible,” he says.

“She’s got it so organised, and the guys just seem to be really loving it in this work atmosphere. It’s a really good atmosphere for them.”

At the time of writing, Lori-Ann is about to start teaching, having recently completed her Certificate IV in Training and Assessment.

“I’ve had a lot of apprentices over the years, but I’ve never had to actually teach the theory side,” she says.

“This is really an opportunity for me to learn on the job along with my trainees.”

Baking isn’t the only option available to inmates either, with traineeships or skillsets offered in everything from furniture making to beekeeping.

“They need a second chance in life,” Lori-Ann says.

Pete agrees, saying he’d advise any business owner to give someone who’s been in prison a fair go.

“I think they’ve got a lot more to prove and they’re a lot more loyal and, like I said, they’re very dedicated to what they do,” he says.

“Some of these beautiful boys and girls just need a chance, you know? They need a second chance. We’ve had a couple down there and because we’re a pretty encouraging sort of place, they’ve really changed their lives and they’ve gone on to do great things.”

Lori-Ann adds, “Give them half a chance and they will run with it. They just need something to do and something that gives them purpose.”

Alexander Maconochie Centre Bakery, ACT

Photos: Dion Georgopoulous © Canberra Times/ACM

Canberra’s Alexander Maconochie Centre (AMC) is also reaping the benefits of a prison-based bakery, with both male and female detainees learning from industry professionals with the potential to gain Certificates I or II in Bakery.

Running six days a week with two trade-qualified bakers heading up operations, the AMC bakery is staffed by three different cohorts of detainees; two male shifts of eight and one female shift of eight. The workers come from varying levels of security, with the majority serving time in minimum and medium security and—depending on risk assessments—the odd maximum-security detainee.

AMC director of industries, Cameron Watling, says working in the bakery is a coveted position for detainees.

“They really like our trade-qualified instruction there—we’ve got Darrell and Cameron, and they’re really engaged with their work crews,” he says.

“They’re keen on imparting the whole facet of baking to the detainees they have working for them. They might do a small run of something, even a couple of dozen—they might do a croissant just to show the technique.

“Although we don’t have a big need for croissants here, they’ll move that product on through our staff café or the detainee canteen, but it’s about showing the full range of baking, not just bread.”

As for bread, the bakery makes all the bread for the 380-odd prison population—about 4,000 bread rolls a month, and about the same for loaves. It isn’t just ordinary white bread either—Cameron says sourdough and Turkish bread are very popular.

“Then we do all the desserts,” he says.

“We do slices, cakes, lamingtons, strudels, pies—so instead of getting the Mrs Macs pies like we used to, we make them in-house now—and sausage rolls.

“They do cakes down there as well. We have big cakes for celebrations of significant days like Corrections Day, NAIDOC week etc. If we have a morning tea, they do all the treats for that as well.”

Since opening, there have been few issues to report—aside from some crafty alternative uses for yeast, namely to brew alcohol.

“We’ve tightened that up now and have better security protocols in place to make sure they don’t have free access to yeast,” Cameron says.

The bakery is running so smoothly now that one of the cohorts, overseen by Darrell Morton, do everything themselves.

“Darrell just provides the oversight. He doesn’t actually get hands on with the production for that day,” Cameron says.

“And they make everything from scratch. There’s a lot of other education that goes into it too. Darrell teaches them all the ratios, so they’re not just working on weights, but actual ratios as well—so whether they’re making a dozen or 40 dozen, they know they’re working on the same ratio of ingredients.”

In fact, Cameron says educator Darrell has been so impressed with the detainees he’s worked with, he has actually recommended them to business owners in the baking industry for employment upon their release. The prison also assists with finding work for detainees approaching the end of their sentences.

“We have an employment worker here, and I know she has linked up at least one female detainee from the bakery to go and work at Bakers Delight,” says AMC senior director of Detainee Services Natalie Adams.

Detainees have had the opportunity to give back to the community through the bakery too, through initiatives like donating hot cross buns to a women’s refuge.

“Sometimes, people aren’t comfortable taking things made by detainees—it can be a bit of a tricky space,” Natalie says.

“We get the feedback from the delegates of what products they’d like to see from the bakery, and everything they’ve asked for to date, the bakery has been able to do.”