Offenders facing short prison terms could offered a job at Iceland Foods instead, executives at the supermarket have suggested.

Iceland chief executive Richard Walker and Paul Cowley, director of rehabilitation, have written to Lord Timpson, the minister for prisons, probation and reducing reoffending, proposing the scheme to help solve prison overcrowding.

The idea could see low-risk offenders avoiding prison by being given a job at Iceland – before serving any prison time – as part of a suspended sentence.

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Walker told The Times: “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.”

He added that hiring criminals reduces reoffending and is good for business as the retention of staff is higher for offenders.

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.”

As of August last year, Iceland employed 350 ex-offenders in posts on the shop floor and as home delivery drivers.  The Times reported that Cowley and Walker have spoken to two former attorneys-general about the feasibility of the plan, who said the plan was legally possible.

“We won’t consider anyone on the sex offenders register,” Cowley told The Times. “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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