IT'S an idea that has come from the mean streets of LA's gang neighbourhoods all the way to Scotland.

The nation is now to get its first restaurants and takeaways run exclusively by reformed criminals thanks to a prisoner reform programme that changed the lives of some of America's most hardened convicts.

The American initiative, which helps former gang members into work, is being used as inspiration for a chain of food businesses that are about to be launched in Scotland.

Braveheart Industries, a charity set up by the Scottish Violence Reduction Unit (VRU), is set to open a restaurant in Glasgow city centre staffed by ex offenders. Another social enterprise project, which also aims to employ ex-prisoners, will be a high-end takeaway in Glasgow’s west end and is expected to create 10 jobs when it opens early next year.

There are plans to roll the project out across Scotland creating a chain of restaurants and takeaways, in order to offer employment in 'sustainable' businesses for former prisoners – including those with “violent criminal histories” – who struggle to get jobs because of their past.

The scheme is based on the Homeboy Industries initiative in Los Angeles, which works to steer people away from the city’s notorious gangs by offering training, employment, counselling and even tattoo removal.

Homeboy was founded by Jesuit priest Father Greg Boyle in 1988 in one of LA’s toughest areas. It runs several social enterprises including a bakery, a food truck and a café.

Braveheart Industries began three years ago and has been running pilot job training programmes working with willing employers to help former prisoners back to work.

Inspector Iain Murray, lead on the employability programme at the VRU, said setting up the businesses would offer more job opportunities as well as enabling more close work with ex-offenders.

He said: “We have been looking for ‘felony friendly’ employers to offer that chance, knowing that we are supporting them (the ex-offender) all the way through. It is difficult to get employers to take that risk, but … if they are in our own business, they are under our wing more.”

The pilot programmes have involved opportunities for behind-the-scenes work with the Edinburgh Military Tattoo and at the Commonwealth Games, where ex-offenders ran a support service for the Games volunteers.

Just over 60 people have gone through the programme so far. Murray said around 79 per cent were now in a “positive destination” – with the majority in full-time work, including employment in industries such as construction, catering, recycling and office work

But he added: “It is not necessarily getting them into employment as outcomes are different for individuals – for one female her positive outcome is she has remained sober the whole time, she is now looking after her children again and she is volunteering. That is success for her – and for us.”

The success stories have included Peter, from the central belt, who spent most of his time between the age of 15 and 21 in prison for assaults, carrying offensive weapons and gang fighting.

Peter – whose name has been changed – is now about to start a job working in the construction industry.

He said he used to “drink all the time and carry knives”. During his last prison sentence – for carrying a machete – he heard about the training programme and decided he had to change his life.

He said: “Five years ago I thought my future would be crime – the thought of getting a job and being happy wasn’t in my future. Now I am basically just happy and working and not in that circle of crime anymore.”

Craig is a mentor with Braveheart Industries. His name has been changed to protect his identity because of the work he does with the VRU. His father died in an accident when he was a child and he became involved in crime at a young age through associates of relatives he went to stay with. He ended up involved in selling drugs and violent crime.

He said: “I spent 17 years behind bars over a 20-year period. I didn’t know how to stay out of prison. With my last sentence I spent seven years in prison for common assault. I knew that lifestyle wasn’t for me anymore, I knew I wanted to change and do something with my life. I now use my experiences to benefit other guys.”

The former prisoners who take up jobs in the planned takeaway and restaurant business will be chosen on a case-by-case basis and “heavily screened” to make sure they are suitable to work with the public, as well as being supervised by the VRU.

Murray said: “We focus on people who have violent criminal histories, people who are furthest from the job market and less likely to get a job than anyone else. Those who have never really had a job are the people we need to impact on, as if we go for the easy ones who would get a job anyway, then we would be wasting our time.”

He added he hoped the public would be welcoming of the idea which is trying to break the “cycle of violence” in families and communities, by starting with changing one individual’s life. He added: “We hope to do this not only in Glasgow but in Ayrshire, Tayside, Lanarkshire, Edinburgh – there is no limit to where we can take this.”