By IRNA,
London : Muslim prisoners risk becoming radicalised by being mistreated as potential terrorists, the chief inspector of prisons in England and Wales warned Tuesday.
Dame Anne Owers said the treatment of the rapidly growing population of Muslim prisoners as potential or actual extremists is prevalent throughout the prison system despite the fact that fewer than 1% are in prison for terrorist-related offences.
In a report of the experiences of Muslim prisoners, Owers called for a national strategy outlining how the needs of Muslims in jail will be met, including for staff to effectively engage with inmates as individuals not “as part of a separate and troubling group”.
“Without that, there is a real risk of a self-fulfilling prophecy: that the prison experience will create or entrench alienation and disaffection, so that prisons release into the community young men who are more likely to offend, or even embrace extremism,” she warned.
Her report was based on interviews with 164 Muslim prisoners in eight prisons and young offender institutions, combined with prisoner surveys and inspection reports over the past three years.
It found that the number of Muslims in prison in England and Wales has soared in recent years from 2,513, or 5% of the prison population, in 1994 to 6,571 or 8% in 2004 and to 10,300, more than 12%, on the latest figures.
“There has been considerable public focus on them as potential extremists and on prisons as the place where they may become radicalised, often through conversion – even though fewer than 1% are in prison for terrorist-related offences,” the chief inspector said.
She said “it would be naive to deny that there are, within the prison population, Muslims who hold radical extremist views, or who may be attracted to them for a variety of reasons.”
“But that does not argue for a blanket, security-led approach to Muslim prisoners in general,” she warned.
The report pointed out that Muslims are far from being a homogenous group, with many converts. In prisoner surveys, 40% were Asian, 32% black, 11% white and 10% of mixed heritage.
“One of their main grievances was, however, that staff tended to think of them as a group, rather than as individuals, and too often through the lens of extremism and terrorism – whether that was to prevent, or detect, those issues,” it said.