Chris is doing his weekly shop at Iceland. “I never know what to order so I end up buying the most random stuff,” he says as he reaches for a bottle of Fairy washing-up liquid.
It’s a common habit of most shoppers but Chris is no ordinary customer. He is one of the lucky inmates who gets to shop at the UK’s first in-prison supermarket.
An Iceland Foods opened last month at HMP Oakwood, near Wolverhampton, the largest prison in the country. It is part of efforts to help prisoners adjust to the outside world and also offers them the chance to secure a job upon release.
“I haven’t had a basket in my hand for years so when I come in here it brings back a bit of what life is like on the outside,” says Chris, who has three years left of his 13-year sentence.
Sean Oliver, the governor of the Category C prison, which is operated by the private security firm G4S and is one of 15 privately run jails in England and Wales, says it also helps inmates to learn to budget.
“Some of our long-termers don’t understand money,” Oliver explains. “We take it for granted but you lose it after several years inside. Here we try to create normality so they can feel and see what normality is like.”
Bradley, a prisoner who works as a manager at the store, has been in jail for seven years. “Some people haven’t been shopping for years so they don’t know what to do at the checkout,” he says. “We help them, show where to put their basket, how to pay and so on.”
Sean Oliver, the governor of HMP Oakwood
TIMES PHOTOGRAPHER RICHARD POHLE
This branch of Iceland is located in a new “marketplace” inside the prison — a large warehouse that attempts to recreate a shopping centre or high street.
There is also a sweet shop, an electrical store, a coffee shop named Hopeful Grounds (with prison-trained baristas), a fruit-and-veg stand and a store called “JP sports”, which sells kit and products such as protein powder.
Inmates are given Monopoly-style money to spend — earned by taking part in various workshops through an incentivised structure for good behaviour — up to a maximum of £25 per week. The prison was just eight places from reaching its full capacity of 2,134 when The Times visited this month.
The marketplace offers the chance to secure training and potentially even a guaranteed job after release.
TIMES PHOTOGRAPHER RICHARD POHLE
Carly Balis, head of employability at HMP Oakwood, who was the brains behind the marketplace, selects prisoners for work train at the Iceland store.
Those approaching the end of their sentences can have their details passed to Paul Cowley, Iceland’s director of rehabilitation and leader of its Second Chance scheme.
As a teenager, Cowley served a short prison sentence for petty crime; he went on to serve in the army and then became a priest. He vets each applicant and conducts a 40-minute interview before deciding whether they are suitable for a job at Iceland on release, either as a retail assistant or as a home delivery driver.
About 350 ex-offenders are employed by Iceland Foods, and a further 300 awaiting release have job offers. Cowley hopes more Icelands will open inside jails.
Ellen Herickx, the supermarket’s employment lead manager, who previously worked at HMP Stocken in Rutland, said ex-prisoners were often its best employees.
All the familiar brands are on sale at the Iceland store
TIMES PHOTOGRAPHER RICHARD POHLE
“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.”
The scheme also offers hope and meaning to prisoners who have many more years to serve. Bradley has 16 years left of his 23-year sentence but helps to manage the Iceland store. “It keeps us busy — the day goes like that,” he says, clicking his fingers.
Not all of the prison’s 2,126 inmates have access to the marketplace.
The privilege is available for good behaviour in a scheme assessed as “unusually effective” by Charlie Taylor, the chief inspector of prisons, who last year rated Oakwood as the best prison in the country. It was a far cry from its nickname “Jokewood”, gained shortly after it opened in 2012 as conditions deteriorated rapidly.
Inmates also staff the store, and can get a job at the chain upon their release
TIMES PHOTOGRAPHER RICHARD POHLE
There are four levels of incentives, including better accommodation and work opportunities, units where they can cook their own food, extra or extended visits or parcels of clothes or electrical goods.
Chris is doing his weekly shop with two friends, though not his cellmate, as he explains why he’s got a Febreze air freshener in his basket.
“My cellmate stinks,” he says, clearly frustrated that he has to spend some of his £25 weekly budget on mitigating the smell.
Anthony has picked up a pack of curly fries from the freezer section, which also has Chicago Town pizzas, quarter pounders, sausages, garlic bread, Quorn mince, chicken nuggets, chips, potato wedges, Ben & Jerry’s ice cream and much more.
Chris is cock-a-hoop as he finds a bottle of Heinz salad cream. “The stuff they have on the wings isn’t branded,” he explains.
The prices are cheaper than on the outside, though prisoners seem oblivious to this.
Simon, another shopper who is just over halfway through his 13-year sentence, says that access to the supermarket helps to incentivise good behaviour. “It makes people think twice before they make daft decisions, because they know they’ll lose this.”
More incentives for rehabilitation and increased autonomy for prison governors are among the recommendations from The Times Crime and Justice Commission, a year-long inquiry that has considered how to reform the criminal justice system.
To read the commission’s report on Kindle, follow the link here. The report can be viewed as a PDF here.