Criminals facing short prison terms could instead be sentenced to a job at Iceland Foods, senior executives have told The Times Crime and Justice Commission.
The idea, which is in its very early stages, could see low-risk offenders diverted away from prison by being given a paid role at Iceland Foods as part of a suspended sentence, before they ever serve any prison time.
Richard Walker, the chief executive, and Paul Cowley, Iceland’s first director of rehabilitation, have written a letter to prisons minister Lord Timpson to discuss the proposal as part of efforts to tackle the prison overcrowding crisis.
Walker said: “We have a prisons 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.”
Cowley and Walker have spoken to two former attorneys-general about the feasibility of the plan, who told them the plan was legally possible and could act like a suspended sentence.
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Cowley said: “If it all goes well, then that’s your sentence. You don’t go to prison. You don’t lose your home, kids don’t go into care. And if it doesn’t, and it all goes pear shaped, then it’s a suspended sentence which kicks in.
“But it’s an opportunity to get rid of a custodial sentence. And I believe, and the company believes, that that would have some impact on reducing reoffending and our prison population.”
Iceland Foods employed 350 ex-offenders as of August last year, across a variety of posts on shop floors, in restaurants and as home delivery drivers. A further 300 currently hold job offers from the company and employment has been offered to more than 680 ex-offenders since Cowley joined as director of rehabilitation in 2022.
Female offenders, who make up 4 per cent of the prison population, are often sentenced to custody for non-violent, low level but persistent offences.
Cowley said: “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.”
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Candidates are found and presented to Cowley by “prison employment leads”, who are given eligibility criteria by Iceland Foods. Candidates do not have to complete an application form and are offered a job after an interview with Cowley about their background and rehabilitation.
The company already has strict protocols on which types of offenders can work at Iceland Foods, and Walker admits that candidates would have to undergo “serious vetting” under the plan.
“We won’t consider anyone on the sex offenders register,” says Cowley. “We can’t legally put people who are on the sex offenders register into public-facing businesses like Iceland Foods.”
Cowley added: “We can’t take anyone with an arson conviction, because of insurance issues. With that, we don’t take anyone who is domestic violence with children involved. We don’t want to do that either.”
“We know much more about their backgrounds than non-offenders,” Walker added.
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Successful candidates receive a physical letter, which Cowley says gives prisoners hope. They get to choose which store they work in and if there is no local availability, the company will sponsor a role in that store for 12 to 15 weeks.
About 80 per cent of job offers are accepted — higher than the standard recruitment rate and “testament to fine-tuning the process and working with prison employment leads, who give you a good crop of candidates in the first place”.
“We’ve now worked out a process,” continued Cowley. He said Iceland Foods was also looking to expand its initiative and create an independent not-for-profit that “takes all of [their] learnings and ideas” and uses them to hire ex-offenders on behalf of other retailers.
Walker said eight of the big ten retailers had shown an initial interest in the rehabilitation not-for-profit.
Last month, Lord Timpson admitted that some offenders, such as sex offenders or people who have been given life sentences, are harder to employ.
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Walker said that it was “very logical and obvious” that some crimes “aren’t redeemable”.
“I think we need to focus on the third or half of the prison population that probably shouldn’t be in there,” he said.
“They’re just caught in these cycles, and if we can provide a helping hand – in fact, if providing a job is the best way of keeping people out of prison then we are very happy to do so, because it’s good for us as well.”