Reducing Reoffending Through Coffee

A huge thank you to Ted Rosner (Spurgeon’s 2006) for delivering the latest Alleyn’s Monday Evening Talk (MET Talk) on Reducing Reoffending Through Coffee. 

Ted is co-founder of Redemption Roasters which was set up in 2016 and now has 13 coffee shops across London. The company trains prisoners and prison leavers in coffee roasting, production and logistics, providing skills for stable employment. Redemption Roasters also works to place prison leavers in a suitable role either in one of their coffee shops, or within its wider network of partners. Their UK employed participants’ reoffending rate is 4% compared to the 42% national average.  

Students found Ted’s talk on the impacts of second chances and breaking the cycle of reoffending, and the company’s mission and impact inspirational. 

Year 7 pupil, Omaira, gave her impressions: 

“Ted Rosner’s enlightening talk about ‘reducing reoffending through coffee’ highlights the difficulty of life after prison and the alienation from spending so long in a prison cell. It is this problem Redemption Roasters endeavours to assist with.  

She continued:

"His coffee shops let people have another chance at life, to go and work as a barista, to not be alienated and disenfranchised by society. It quite simply gives them another lease of life.  

But Ted felt that even though 20% of his staff in coffee shops are prison leavers, and he has 170 staff - this won’t exactly create a dent and more needs to be done."

A huge thank you to Ted for returning to inspire current Alleyn’s pupils. Ted was also the winner of the Young Alumni Achievement Winner in the inaugural Alleyn’s Alumni Achievement Awards in 2024. 

Find out more about his journey and achievements in the Winter 2024 Alleyn's On Magazine:

Read Alleyn's On here