Prisoners to order meals on touch-screen cell system

Fingerprint technology will be used at South Staffordshire's new £200 million super prison to allow inmates to order food and arrange visits, it has emerged – as the facility prepares to welcome its first prisoners.

The majority of prisoners at the new HMP Oakwood – which takes its first lot of inmates tomorrow – will also have a phone in their cells to make calls to family and friends. A hi-tech touch-screen system placed in each cell block will be able to identify prisoners through fingerprints.

Pictures of food options will then be displayed to allow them to select what they want.

Prison bosses say that it will help reduce the amount of food that is wasted.

Director Steve Holland said the jail will aim to give inmates qualifications that will increase their employability when they are released in the hope that it will reduce the risk of them reoffending.

Former police officer Mr Holland, who has worked at prisons throughout the country for over 30 years, said: "People believe if we make prison tough, it acts as a deterrent.

"I think it is a reasonable thing for people to believe, but actually it doesn't work like that.

"No matter how tough you make prison, people will commit offences.

"What acts as a deterrent is the likelihood that you are going to be caught.

"If you look at the US, crime is out of control.

"Doing it the way we are going to do it works."

Mr Holland stressed that the jail would be a working prison, with inmates working as closely to a 40-hour week as possible.

The prison has the capacity for 2,106 prisoners but Mr Holland explained there were no plans to see the number of inmates increase beyond 1,605.

He said: "The reality is the prison will hold 1,605. That's what we are contracted to do.

"I have not got any information that that is going to change."

The prison, which has been delivered on time and on budget, is expected to be at full capacity by autumn.