Justice Secretary Liz Truss is to establish special units within prisons to hold so-called “Islamist extremists” most likely to radicalise other inmates.
The BBC reports that she has also announced plans to strengthen the vetting of Muslim prison chaplains and remove supposedly “extremist books” from prison libraries.
It comes after a report found there was “complacency” at the “growing problem” of Islamist extremism in jails.
The review into extremism in prisons, led by former prison governor Ian Acheson and to be published on Monday, said there was “institutional timidity” in challenging extremist views in prison, with staff fearful of being considered racist. He also found radicals trying to get prison staff to leave during Friday prayers.
One of his key recommendations was to “incapacitate” violent extremists by keeping them away from other prisoners. This should be done by creating special units in high security prisons, completely physically isolated from the rest of the jails, he recommended.
His report will only be published in summary for security reasons.
Mr Acheson said his report had concluded that the National Offender Management Service, which is responsible for correctional services in England and Wales, “was very far from being effective in both understanding and reacting properly to the obvious threat posed by IE (Islamist extremism)”.
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In an email to the BBC, he said: “This must change in order to protect staff, prisoners and wider society and we have made dozens of recommendations to that end.”
Mr Acheson told the BBC: “Prisons must be places where there is order, control, stability and leadership. In the absence of these foundations it is all too easy for extremism to flourish and rehabilitation to founder. There are no easy answers to the problem of Islamist extremism or indeed any of the other ills which plague our prisons and stop them being hopeful purposeful places. But I am optimistic about the way Liz Truss has begun to deal with the issues and correct the drift.”
Publication of the report comes a few days after it was revealed that Anjem Choudary had been convicted of inviting others to support ISIS. Fears have been voiced that Choudary, who is due to be sentenced in September, would be able to influence other inmates with his views.
However, Cerie Bullivant, who was placed under a control order based on secret evidence and who spent time in prison before being exonerated, told 5Pillars that this isn’t the first time that such measures have been attempted.
“I saw no radicalisation happening when I was in prison although I did see a lot of daw’ah taking place and people becoming Muslim. I don’t think this is an issue in remand prisons where people are held awaiting trial because they are just too paranoid about the security services and being spied upon before their trial. It may be happening elsewhere though, I don’t know.”
He added: “The Muslim community has been viewed through the lens of counter terrorism since 9/11 in prisons and in society in general and this hasn’t been helpful. These isolation measures were tried on prisoners who were being held without charge or trial such as Abu Qatada in Long Lartin prison and all that ended up happening was that people were being deprived of their rights and there’s a danger that people who shouldn’t be in these units will end up there.
“As for the vetting of imams and the banning of books, this government has shown its intent to clamp down on freedom of speech and to take fundamental liberties away so there’s no surprise. This is a dry run for the Counter Terrorism Act that seeks to do the same thing to our whole society. The CTS Act is coming and will be much more damaging than even the Prevent strategy is but our community isn’t even aware of it.”
