700 prisoners in UK jails hold dangerously extreme views
AROUND 700 prisoners in British jails are extremists who could brainwash vulnerable inmates, officials said yesterday.
For the first time, they have disclosed how many prisoners are considered a danger for their vile jihadist or farright views.
about 600 of the extremists are islamists, while around 70 are white supremacists. The rest are violent animal rights activists and other domestic extremists.
The figures expose the scale of the challenge prison chiefs face to counter extremism and radicalisation behind bars – and to prevent hardliners preying on their fellow convicts.
Ministers fear the problem will get worse as British Muslims return from fighting with the islamic State terror group in iraq and Syria. The figures were published as the Ministry of Justice announced that a second ‘prison within a prison’ has been created as part of a drive to stamp out extremism in jails.
The latest ‘separation centre’ to house the most subversive prisoners is at top-security HMP Full Sutton in north Yorkshire. The first was opened at maximum-security HMP Frankland in Durham last July.
a third unit will follow at another Category a jail by the end of the year. announcing the unit at HMP Full Sutton, the Ministry of Justice said: ‘With 700 prisoners considered a risk due to their extremist views, and fighters returning from Syria and iraq hardened and dangerous, the Government is meeting the challenge of confronting and countering the spread of poisonous ideology within prisons.’
The MOJ said there has been a 75 per cent increase in prisoners convicted of terrorism-related offences in the past three years.
at the end of December there were 224 individuals in custody in Britain after being charged with or convicted of terrorismrelated crimes.
Others held for non-terrorism offences but deemed to be an extremism risk were also counted in the 700 figure.
Britain’s most notorious hate preacher was moved to the separation unit at HMP Frankland last year. anjem Choudary, who was jailed for five-and-a-half years in September 2016 for urging Muslims to support IS, was put in the centre after he refused to stop preaching his extremist views despite being warned by prison authorities.
The MOJ has appointed 100 counter-terrorism specialists and trained more than 13,000 frontline staff to ensure they can identify, report and tackle extremist behaviour in all its forms.
a new intelligence unit will boost the ability of prison officers to target those who present the greatest extremist threat.
Justice Secretary David Gauke said: ‘as a result of the Government’s unprecedented action to protect the public from extremists, we have seen a 75 per cent rise in terrorism-related prisoners over the last three years.
‘That means we need to do more than ever before to confront and counter the threat – and we are meeting that challenge.
‘With thousands of prison staff now trained to deal with extremism, an enhanced intelligence capability and separation centres for the most subversive prisoners, we are well equipped to deal with this threat.’
Up to 28 mainly Muslim extremists will be kept in the three separation centres in a drive to tackle the growing problem of radicalisation behind bars. islamist terrorists, hate preachers and criminals radicalised behind bars will be held in them.
each will house only a small number of prisoners, making it easier to monitor them and reduce the risk of them plotting atroci-
‘Poisonous ideology’
ties from behind bars. They are expected to be isolated from the rest of the prison rather than in wings attached to the main jail. The inmates would be subjected to intensive de- radicalisation programmes.
Until now islamist terrorists have been dispersed around the prison system in the same way that ira terrorists convicted on the mainland were in the past.
But a review by former prison governor ian acheson called for the most dangerous and charismatic offenders to be isolated from the general prison population to prevent them spreading their poison. There are around 13,000 Muslims in prison.