I visited Redemption Roasters for the first time recently. It made me think about something incredibly ordinary: where we buy our morning coffee.
Like millions of us, I've spent years walking into familiar coffee chains without thinking. You know what you're getting. Order, collect, drink, leave. Redemption Roasters was different. Did it have that instantly recognisable coffee chain smell? No. Was the furniture quite as comfortable? Perhaps not. Was the process quite as slick? Maybe not. But somehow, the coffee felt better — because Redemption Roasters isn't simply selling coffee. It is using coffee to create opportunities for people leaving prison.
While sipping my Americano, I started doing some research. In 2025, 56,923 people were released from prison in England and Wales. According to Ministry of Justice statistics, 63.5% — or 36,000 — of the relevant supervised prison-leaver cohort were recorded as being unemployed six months after release.
36,000 people. Every year. Looking for an opportunity to rebuild their lives.
What does that have to do with our morning coffee? Potentially, quite a lot. Redemption trains people in custody and those at risk of offending with skills for careers in coffee, and then helps participants into employment.
As of August 2026, according to its website, 34% of its shop workforce were programme participants, it had supported 134 participants into employment in its shops, and 730 people had completed its in-custody programmes. Perhaps most strikingly, Redemption reports a known reoffending rate among its participants of 1.8%, compared with the 38% national benchmark it uses.
Suddenly my choice of coffee shop didn't feel quite so trivial. We talk a lot about what the government, prisons, probation and employers should do to support rehabilitation. Perhaps there's another group with a role. Us. You and me.
A little more research and I found that Britons drink around 98 million cups of coffee every single day. Around 72,000 people work in UK coffee shops. What if just 10% of Britain's 98 million daily cups were bought from businesses deliberately creating opportunities for people with prison backgrounds? That's 9.8 million purchasing decisions every day — more than £3.5 billion a year.
Imagine if just 10% of those coffee shop jobs were filled by people with prison backgrounds. That's 7,200 jobs — equivalent to around 1 in every 8 people released from prison in a year.
The potential impact on crime
If 7,200 people reoffended at the 38% benchmark, that would mean around 2,736 people reoffending. At Redemption's reported 1.8% known reoffending rate, it would be around 130. That's an illustrative difference of 2,606 fewer people reoffending.
We can't translate that directly into 2,606 fewer victims. One person can commit several offences, while some offences have multiple victims or no individually identifiable victim. However, behind every crime prevented is the possibility of someone not becoming a victim.
- The shopkeeper who isn't burgled.
- The person who isn't assaulted.
- The family whose car isn't stolen.
- The community that doesn't experience the next offence.
And that's when this becomes about much more than coffee. The customers already exist. The jobs already exist. The people looking for an opportunity already exist. And there are potential future victims who may never have to become victims.
Of course, changing where we buy our coffee wouldn't magically produce these results. However it demonstrates the potential when consumer choices, employment and rehabilitation come together. That's what I liked about Redemption. I wasn't being asked to make a donation. I wasn't volunteering my time. I was just buying a coffee — something I was going to do anyway.
We don't all run prisons. We don't all work in probation. We can't all employ somebody leaving prison. But most of us buy coffee. Tomorrow morning, we all get to choose where we buy it.
My first Redemption Roasters experience might not have had all the familiarity, comfort and polish of the chains I've visited hundreds of times before, but I walked out feeling surprisingly good about the few pounds I'd just spent. The warmth I felt wasn't just from the coffee.
My challenge to you, and myself, is: every 10th coffee you buy, if possible buy from an organisation like Redemption — one that is trying to help others, not just make profits. Sometimes supporting someone's second chance, and potentially preventing someone else from becoming a victim, can be as simple as choosing a different cup.