When Bristol County Sheriff Tom Hodgson heard that the owners of the Shawmut Diner were looking for a way to keep the building alive following its closing in the spring of 2014, he stepped forward.

“I spoke to Phil Paleologos, and I said, ‘If you’re willing to donate it, we’d keep the diner going with a program for inmates,’” said Hodgson.

Though it has yet to start, Hodgson said there are still plans in the works for a program at the Bristol County House of Corrections in North Dartmouth that would help integrate inmates into the restaurant business through the diner.

“The whole idea and the concept is to have the inmates be able to work in the diner learning how to serve so they can position themselves when they get out to potentially get a job,” said Hodgson. “But more importantly, they will be learning the skills of customer service, learning how to talk to people and feeling the rewards of the compliments people will give them when they provide good service.”

The Paleologos family — which includes WBSM radio host Phil and his wife Celeste — owned and operated the business since 1981. They decided to close it in March of 2014.

“We’d had enough,” Celeste said. “We had enough time put in, and I had other things on my bucket list that I wanted to do in my life. It was a good time for us. “

Hodgson said the program is awaiting funding for the construction of a new kitchen on the back of the classic 1950s style diner, which was moved from its Shawmut Avenue location in New Bedford to the prison’s property in 2014. He said he hopes to have that funding secured within the next six months.

The plan is to alternate as many inmates as possible into the program, Hodgson said, as well as to have some training done within the prison prior to entering the workplace.

“There, they’ll learn the appropriate ways to serve food, how to deal with a customer — they’ll be learning those types of skills in a classroom setting before they’ll have the opportunity to apply those skills.”

He said the hope is to have seniors from surrounding communities bussed into the diner as well as to provide them with a low-cost lunch.

“It does two things — it gives the seniors a chance to get out and at the same time it also affords these inmates to be exposed to a grandmother or a grandfatherly type who really appreciates what they’re doing. Part of our plan is to associate good feelings with good work and good deeds,” said Hodgson.

Celeste, who currently works with female inmates at the Bristol County House of Corrections in a similar job-readiness program, said she’s looking forward to seeing the program, and the diner, up and running.

“It would be great. The sheriff is all about the prisoners and trying to give them a head start when they leave,” she said. “They may not all go into the restaurant field, but they have the basics of how to work as a team. We trying to get through to them.”

“I love to see the girls every week,” added Celeste of her work with the inmates. “They’re great. I know they’re incarcerated, but to see the smiles on their faces when they walk in and when they leave — it’s very rewarding.”

Hodgson said the Paleologos family has always been very community oriented, and he was happy when they agreed to donate the diner.

“They’re good people that want to see people do well,” he said. “They liked the idea of being able to integrate it into a useful purpose and give back to the community.”