The first ‘in prison’ supermarket has been opened inside Britain’s largest nick.
Food chain Iceland launched the new store inside HMP Oakwood in Featherstone, Staffordshire to help prisoners adjust to the outside world upon their release. Inmates are given Monopoly-style money to spend on groceries, including branded products like Chicago Town pizzas and Ben & Jerry’s ice cream that are unavailable on the prison wing, The Times reported.
The supermarket, which opened last month, is the first of its kind in the UK. It is part of a new shopping centre style ‘marketplace’ built inside a huge warehouse within the jail, which includes a number of other shops.
It is part of a new shopping centre style ‘marketplace’ built inside a huge warehouse within the jail, which includes a number of other shops. The marketplace also features a coffee shop called Hopeful Grounds with inmate baristas, a greengrocer and a leisure shop dubbed ‘JP sports’.
In return for good behaviour, prisoners can earn up to £25 a week to spend in the Category C prison, where prices are lower than in Iceland’s high street stores. The store also offers employment to some prisoners as they near the end of their sentences, to help ease their route back into the world of work following their release.
HMP Oakwood, one of 15 privately run jails in England and Wales, is run by security firm G4S. Charlie Taylor, HM Chief Inspector of Prisons, described the scheme as ‘unusually effective’. Last year Mr Taylor commended the prison for its ‘culture of prisoner-led initiatives’ and called it ‘the best prison I have seen in my time as Chief Inspector’.
The prison has undergone a huge transformation over the last decade after it was slammed by prison inspectors in 2013. The penitentiary had been nicknamed ‘HMP Jokewood’ by prisoners, amid soaring levels of violence and rife drug issues on the wings.
Ellen Herickx, Iceland’s employment lead manager, who previously worked at HMP Stocken in Rutland, told The Times: “A lot of prisoners, when they come into prison, think, “Who’s going to employ me? I’m in prison. That’s it, that’s the end of my life because nobody will take me on.’
“So when they get that opportunity, that second chance, they grasp it with both hands,” she said. “They’re less likely to reoffend, they’re less likely to mess up because they’ve got structure, routine, stability, so straight away they’re on the right path. And they’re grateful because they didn’t expect another chance.”
HMP Oakwood’s head of employability Carly Balis helps identify inmates suitable for a role at the in-prison Iceland branch. She passes on their details to Paul Cowley MBE, Iceland’s director of rehabilitation since 2022, who leads the supermarket giant’s Second Chance scheme.
According to The Times, Mr Cowley served a short prison sentence as a teenager for petty crime, before serving in the Armed Forces and then joining the priesthood. Under his leadership, Iceland has been helping ex-offenders across the UK get back into work.
The company now employs around 350 former inmates, while an additional 300 have job offers ahead of their release. Mr Cowley holds job interviews with all potential inmate employees before moving successful candidates into delivery driver or in-store roles.
Sean Oliver, HMP Oakwood’s governor, said the scheme had helped some inmates with long sentences ‘feel and see what normality is like’.
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