Iceland has opened the UK’s first prison supermarket, as it seeks to help inmates adjust to life in the outside world.

The frozen food specialist opened a special branch at the UK’s largest prison, HMP Oakwood near Wolverhampton, last month, reported The Times.

The branch is located inside a new “marketplace” that resembles a high street or shopping centre, and is accompanied by an electrical store, a sweet shop, a coffee shop, a fruit and veg stand and a store dubbed “JP sports”, which sells products such as protein powder.

It is understood that the products on offer, at prices cheaper than those in conventional stores, include popular branded foods such as Heinz sauces, Chicago Town pizzas, Quorn mince and Ben & Jerry’s ice cream.

The more than 2,100 prisoners have been given Monopoly-style money, up to the value of £25 a month, which they can spend on such products.

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Elsewhere, the marketplace also provides inmates with the chance to train in a retail setting, increasing their chances of gaining a job after release.

The new supermarket opening fits with Iceland’s ongoing prison rehabilitation scheme, where ex-offenders are given the opportunity of a job at the grocery retailer in roles such as retail assistant or home delivery driver.

Launched in 2022, the Second Chance scheme has already seen Iceland hire more than 350 former inmates, with a further 300 set to join after they serve their sentences.

Speaking to the publication earlier this year, Iceland Foods chief executive Ricard Walker and director of rehabilitation Paul Cowley suggested low-risk offenders could be redirected away from prison and instead be sentenced to a job at his supermarket.

The proposals were submitted via a letter to prison minister Lord Timpson, and have been suggested in a bid to reduce the UK’s overcrowded prison population and alleviate strain on the system.

“Before they get sentenced, then we’ll give them the opportunity to come and work for us. If you find the right category of men or women, and we’d probably work with women first,” Crowley said.

Walker added: “We have a prison crisis, and we have a solution that we think could be really powerful. And look, if people mess up and they don’t turn up for work, then they do go inside.”