Iceland opens new supermarket inside UK's largest prison

Inmates at the UK's largest can now shop their favourite frozen food from Greggs to Chicago Town pizzas at Britain first 'in-prison' Iceland branch. Food retailer Iceland, which has 900 stores across the UK, last month opened a store at in Featherstone, Staffordshire.

The supermarket opened in a bid to help inmates adjust to the outside world when they are released, and also offers them the chance to secure a job upon release. who earn currency for good behaviour can swap the 'Monopoly-style cash' for some of Iceland's most beloved items that are unavailable on the prison wings, reported. The supermarket is the first of its kind in the UK and forms part of a new 'marketplace' within a huge warehouse inside the Staffordshire prison.

A maximum of £25 per week can be spent at the Category C prison's supermarket, although items are cheaper than in Iceland's high street stores. HMP Oakwood, one of 15 privately run jails in England and Wales, is run by security firm G4S.

At first glance you would think the store is a typical retailer you would see down the high street - it even has its own manager in the form of Bradley, who has been in jail for seven years.

Bradley told The Times: Some people haven't been shopping for years so they don't know what to do at the checkout.

"We help them, show where to put their basket, how to pay and so on."

Alongside Icleand, the marketplace also has a sweet shop, an electrical store, a coffee shop named Hopeful Grounds (with prison-trained baristas), a fruit-and-veg stand and a leisure store called "JP sports", which sells kit and products such as protein powder.

Ellen Herickx, Iceland's employment lead manager, 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.

"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."