HMP OAKWOOD has undergone enormous transformation in the last decade after being nicknamed “ HMP JOKEWOOD ” by prisoners in 2013
The first supermarket “in prison” was opened in the largest nick in Great Britain.
The Iceland food chain launched the new store inside HMP Oakwood in Featherstone, Staffordshire to help prisoners adapt to the outside world to their release. Inmates receive monopoly style money to spend on grocery store, including brand products such as Chicago Town pizzas and Ben & Jerry ice cream that is not available on the prison wing, Times reported.
The supermarket, which opened its doors last month, is the first of its kind in the United Kingdom. It is part of a new “market” in shopping center style built inside a huge warehouse in the prison, which includes a number of other stores.
It is part of a new “market” in shopping center style built inside a huge warehouse in the prison, which includes a number of other stores. The marketplace also offers a coffee called Hopeful Grounds with baristas prisoners, a Greengrocer and a leisure store nicknamed “JP Sports”.
In exchange for good behavior, prisoners can win up to £ 25 per week to spend in category C prison, where prices are lower than those of High Street stores in Iceland. The store also offers jobs to certain prisoners while they are in the end of their sorrows, to help alleviate their itinerary in the world of work after their release.
HMP Oakwood, one of the 15 private prisons in England and Wales, is managed by the security company G4S. Charlie Taylor, HM chief inspector of prisons, described the program as “unusually effective”. Last year, Taylor congratulated the prison for his “culture of initiatives led by prisoners” and called it “the best prison I saw in my time as a chief inspector”.
The prison has undergone enormous transformation in the past decade after being criticized by prison inspectors in 2013. The penitentiary had been nicknamed “HMP Jokewood” by prisoners, in the midst of levels of violence and rigid drug problems on the wings.
Ellen Herickx, senior employment director of Iceland, who previously worked at HMP Stocken in Rutland, told Times: “Many prisoners, when they come to prison, think:” Who will work on me? I’m in prison. That’s it, it’s the end of my life because no one will take me.
“So when they get this opportunity, this second chance, they seize it with both hands,” she said. “They are less likely to recur, they are less likely to spoil because they have a structure, a routine, stability, so immediately they are on the right track. And they are grateful because they did not expect another chance.”
HMP OAKWOOD’s employability chief Carly BALIS, helps to identify prisoners adapted to a role in the branch in Iceland in Prison. She transmits their contact details to Paul Cowley Mbe, director of rehabilitation of Iceland since 2022, who runs the supermarket giant program.
According to the Times, Mr. Cowley served a short prison sentence in adolescence for small crime, before serving in the armed forces, then joining the priesthood. Under its leadership, Iceland has helped ex-declining people across the United Kingdom to get back to work.
The company now employs around 350 former prisoners, while additional 300 have job offers before their release. Mr. Cowley holds job interviews with all potential prisoners before moving candidates selected in delivery drivers or store roles.
Sean Oliver, Governor of HMP Oakwood, said the program helped some prisoners feel long sentences and see what normality looks like.
