Britain’s independent reviewer of terrorist legislation, Jonathan Hall QC, says the Prison Service has failed to tackle Islamist gangs and has allowed some jails to become breeding grounds for terrorism.
The review of terrorist activity in jails in England and Wales follows a series of high-profile cases, including the November 2019 Fishmonger’s Hall attack by Usman Khan, a convicted terrorist who had been released from prison, and the Streatham attack three months later by another Islamist former prisoner.
In February this year Hashem Abedi—serving a life sentence for his role in the 2017 Manchester Arena bombing—was convicted of attacking a prison officer, along with two other Islamists, in Belmarsh jail.
In 2020 Brusthom Ziamani, who was serving a 19-year sentence for plotting to decapitate a soldier, and Baz Hockton were convicted of the attempted murder of a prison officer at Whitemoor jail.
Hockton had no Islamist affiliations before he was jailed for a series of assaults in Ramsgate, Kent in 2016. The pair’s trial heard he was radicalised by Ziamani who had somehow gained access to a memory card containing extremist material, which he transcribed for Hockton.
Terrorists Have ‘Perverse Esteem’
At the inquest into the deaths of the two victims of the Fishmongers’ Hall attack, the head of counter-terrorism at Whitemoor prison in Cambridgeshire testified about the “perverse esteem” in which convicted terrorists were held “within the prison subculture.”CEO of International Corporate Protection Group and counter-terrorism expert, Will Geddes, said Islamist gangs find it easy to recruit common criminals, telling The Epoch Times: “Prisoners are the ultimate captive audience. Individuals who feel victimised, disenchanted, and have lost purpose in life will find themselves believing they are serving a greater good.”
He said: “It is the age-old issue of prisoners being further criminalised in prison. They are a ’school of crime.' One of the biggest challenges is that you get people who go into prison and are not radicalised but, sometimes by force or coercion, they join a radical group. They can be offered protection by being part of a clique.”
Hall’s report said the Prison Service often took a softly softly approach instead of tackling Islamist gangs head-on. The report said they often negotiated with the leaders or “emirs” to help maintain good order, and the emirs had tried to exclude prison officers from monitoring Friday prayers or ordered them to remove their shoes.
In response to the report, Justice Secretary Dominic Raab said the government would not allow “cultural and religious sensitivities” to stymie its efforts to tackle terrorism and Islamist propaganda.
Raab also announced a new £1.2 million ($1.5 million) team within the Prison Service that will identify the most influential and “charismatic” Islamist leaders and move them to one of three separation centres.
The centres, at Frankland Prison in County Durham, Woodhill in Buckinghamshire, and Full Sutton in Yorkshire, have 28 places.
Islamist Gangs Need to Be ‘Dismantled’
But Geddes said: “Why has it taken the government this amount of time to identify these charismatic individuals who are the leaders? They need to dismantle Islamist groups, but also right-wing groups, by taking away the leaders.”In his report, Hall said there was “no other comparable threat” in prisons than that posed by Islamists.
He said: “Prisons must not be allowed to become a second opportunity for committed terrorists whose attack plans are thwarted in the community. More fundamentally, public confidence in the criminal justice system is shaken if terrorism occurs in prison or if people enter prison only to more dangerous: and the ability of prisons to function is gravely degraded if prison officers fear imminent terrorist attack.”
Only 15 inmates have ever been placed in the special separation centres because of a fear of legal challenges by prisoners who claim it would breach their right to a private life under the Human Rights Act.
The Ministry of Justice is investing £6 million ($7.5 million) in expanding close supervision centres, special high-security wings of prisons where the most violent offenders, including terrorists, are detained.
Governors will be given greater autonomy for tackling and reducing terrorist behaviour in their prisons while new targets will be set for improving performance.
