Convicted terrorists will be banned from taking a leading role in religious services in a new government crackdown on dangerous radicalisation behind bars.
New robust checks will also limit the amount of literature allowed in prison to combat the spread of extremism, the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) announced.
The measures—which will only apply in England and Wales—will prevent terrorist prisoners leading the call to prayer or delivering sermons, positions some “exploit to gain authority or influence over other offenders and spread their poisonous ideology.”
Newly appointed Justice Secretary Alex Chalk said the rules will strengthen existing measures preventing the most dangerous prisoners leading Friday prayers by extending the ban to all faiths and not just those in high-security prisons.
Limits on inmate property will prevent extremists circumventing prison rules to hide and spread extremist texts.
While under prison rules there are no limits on the number of books prisoners can own, the government said it will toughen these restrictions by stating that they must fit into two medium size boxes with a maximum weight of 15 kilograms.
This follows instances where prisoners have gathered hundreds of books in their cells in an apparent attempt to thwart prison officers searching for extremist material.
‘Eye Off the Ball’
In an MoJ press release published on Sunday, Chalk said the moves build on a “bolstered approach” to managing terrorists in prison that began a year ago following an independent review by terrorism legislator Jonathan Hall, KC.However, it is not the first time the government was advised to bring in such measures.
A report submitted to the government in 2017 highlighted the subversion of corporate worship by radicalised prisoners.
Ian Acheson of the Counter Extremism Project (CEP) carried out the independent review into Islamist extremism behind bars.
His principal recommendation was about Friday Prayers, however it was rejected by the government.
Speaking to The Epoch Times, the former prison governor welcomed the measures, but criticised the length of time it had taken the MoJ to put them in place.
“My concern with ministers is that they’ve had six years from the date of my previous review for them, raising the same problems and solutions, where there has been quite dangerous drift and not enough progress,” he said.
“All sorts of things have happened in those six years, we’ve had a fanatical terrorist, Usman Khan, who deceived prison and probation bosses that he was a poster child for rehabilitation who then went on after release to murder two students in Fishmongers’ Hall.
“We’ve had the attempted terrorist murder of a prison officer for the first time in GB who was attacked by a terrorist with an accomplice dressed in a suicide belt in [HMP] Whitemoor in 2020.”
The CEP senior adviser said making “somewhat reheated announcements” was “not enough.”
“Ministers have to have assurance systems in place to convince them what they are proposing actually is enforced,” he said. “I don’t believe such guarantees exist.”
“There have been changes and new initiatives recently after a new unit was imposed on the Ministry of Justice to get a grip on national security failures in our prison.
“There are good people in post who understand the scale and the urgency of the problem.”
“But I’m still very, very sceptical about the prison service’s ability and frankly their appetite to introduce the new initiatives—new in inverted commas—that have been announced.”
Acheson said ministers “must be alive” to the fact that they “don’t always get the right information or information at the right time about what is happening on the frontline.”
Recommendations
Announcing the new measures on Sunday, Lord Chancellor Chalk said: “Faith can play a vital part in prisoners’ rehabilitation but we must never tolerate terrorists who seek to exploit religious services to advance their own sinister agenda.“These changes, alongside tougher sentences for terrorists who commit crimes behind bars and our work to separate more of the most radical terrorists, will better protect our hardworking staff, other prisoners, and the public.”
According to the MoJ, there are currently around 200 convicted terrorists in custody, many of whom “attempt to justify their offences through their flawed interpretation of religion.”
The announcement is the latest in a string of actions taken to prevent radicalisation and exploitation by terrorist offenders behind bars, following recommendations made by Jonathan Hall, KC.
The Crime in Prisons agreement, introduced in November, ensures that terrorist offenders are automatically referred to the police for prosecution so they face longer behind bars to keep the public safe.
The government also introduced the investment of £1.2 million to establish a specialist Separation Centre and high-risk casework team, helping prevent offenders from spreading their malicious ideology to others.
There have also been changes to placement into separation centres so that offenders can be considered for placement in them sooner rather than being a “last resort.”
The centres are used to hold the most subversive extremist prisoners to prevent them from radicalising other prisoners.
