Shawshank goes green: prisoners make their own eco-friendly lightbulbs

In a green twist to the Shawshank Redemption, prisoners are being put to work assembling eco-friendly LED lights for their cells that will save the taxpayer £2.5 million a year when installed in jails in England and Wales

Prisoners at HMP Garth in Lancashire are pioneering a scheme where they manufacture the eco-friendly lights which are then installed in their jail, cutting the amount of electricity used by 62 per cent.

It has been so successful that there are now plans by the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) to expand it to the 140 jails throughout England and Wales as part of a major programme to “green” the countries’ prison estate.

Prison bosses believe it also has the spin-off benefit of giving the inmates new skills that will boost their employability when they leave jail and reduce the prospect of reoffending.

It offers a green tinge to the classic Shawshank film in which Andy Dufresne, the banker jailed for life for murder and played by Tim Robbins, transforms the prison library through appeals and deals into the “best in New England.”

Component parts purchased

The project to construct lights in accordance with prison service security standards was developed by HMP Garth staff and led to a product that is 36 per cent cheaper than the original design.

The prison has bought components to retrofit 6,700 lights so far, with work continuing as prisoners are producing around 100 a week to install in the prison and elsewhere in the estate.

A total of 13,000 bulbs in prisons have so far been changed to the energy efficient alternative, saving £645,000 per year. The aim is to replace all 50,000 old fluorescent lights in prisoners’ cells to bring about multi-million pound savings.

'Build back greener'

Prisons minister Alex Chalk said: “This is the latest example of prisons doing their bit to build back greener as we move towards a net-zero future.

“We know teaching prisoners new skills reduces reoffending, and this is an opportunity to combine learning with tackling climate change.”

The move follows plans revealed last week by The Telegraph to install 16,000 solar panels in prisons to cut more than 1,300 tonnes of carbon, and provide 20 per cent of each jail’s electricity as part of the service’s contribution to the Government’s “net zero” strategy.

Four new “zero-carbon” prisons are also to be built with an all-electric design, solar panels, heat pumps and more efficient lighting systems to reduce energy demand.