Lags who tried to pull the wool over the law’s eyes are being rehabilitated – by learning sheep shearing.
Female cons are being trained in the rural skill to help land jobs when released.
Experts have been teaching them in masterclasses at HMP East Sutton Park, set in 84 acres of countryside near Maidstone, Kent.
A source said: “This isn’t your normal prison, but the classes are unusual even for us. They are definitely more Countryfile than Porridge.”
The jail is home to around 100 inmates – and as many sheep. Shearers demonstrated how to sit an animal on its rump and pull its front legs up so that its belly could be shaved.
Then came the tricky bit – rolling the sheep over so that its entire fleece could be removed. Prison bosses say the task is “hard work”.
Top shearers can de-fleece an animal in just a few minutes, charging around £1 a time. And with some 30 million sheep in Britain, there is no shortage of work.
Inspectors from jail watchdog the Independent Monitoring Board praised the course.
The jail – once home to Black Widow killer Linda Calver and Sarah Ferguson’s ex-dressmaker Jane Andrews – already does classes in fixing computers and making barista coffees. Prisoners also make sausages and sell them at a local market.
In 2018 there was outcry at NHS-funded goat therapy sessions for male prisoners at HMP Swaleside on the Isle of Sheppey – 20 miles from East Sutton Park.
The Prison Service said: “Schemes like this offer skills to prisoners so they can find work upon release and stay free from crime.”
