“No-one messes with the Muslims in here” — Prison radicalisation in the UK
Throughout history, prisons have served as recruitment centres and headquarters for ideological extremists across the globe. Famous individuals from Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin, to less known but equally influential Sayyid Qutb and Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, used their time behind bars to develop extremist philosophies and recruit others into their mode of thinking. As such, it is no surprise that prisons are places of vulnerability and that prisoners are inviting recruitment targets for criminal vanguards of religious Islamist extremists. Research, and as a result British government strategies, to deal with extremism in prison all focus on the personal vulnerability of prisoners and why they become targets; they do not address how extremists operate and recruit within the prison system.
Unlike other prison systems, which segregate terrorist offenders, the UK disperses them into the general prison population. The UK is reluctant to separate terrorist or extremist offenders from other prisoners following the incarceration of IRA members in the 1970s. However, the less isolationist approach also has its consequences as inmates tend to form gangs of like-minded individuals. The growth of Islamist extremism has had vast consequences in prisons, mainly growing hostility between Muslim and non-Muslim inmates, leaving Muslim inmates regularly concerned about their safety, pushing them towards gangs. Some young men, plunged into prison, find that safety only lies in adopting an aggressive Muslim identity. Extremist Islamist groups, such as Al-Muhajiroun, have then abused this dichotomy and necessity to secure gang protection, specifically targeted prisoners and those on probation.
There is a clear disparity between the concerns of the general public and the British government, compared to academia on the topic of radicalisation in Britain’s prisons.
The media have created a haunting picture of Islamist gangs in prisons, fearmongering the public with headlines such as “The Islamic extremists taking over UK prisons”, and “Muslim gangs imposing sharia law in British prisons”, from the Daily Mail and Telegraph. Other headlines focus on infamous inmates: ‘Yorkshire ripper turns to Islam after Muslim gangs offer mass murderer jail protection’, was a headline from September 2016 in the Sunday Express. Throughout the 1970s, the mere mention of the nom-de-guerre, Jack the Ripper, instilled fear in entire communities across the North of England. It still carries resonance to this day, and that is before the sensationalist association with Islamists. Media reports touch upon how Islamist gangs function in prison, but struggle to present the full picture; most do not even differentiate between Islam and Islamism. This can create confusion about the facts and results in negative backlash. Comments online in response to the Sunday Express article in September 2016, include: ‘Well it’s only natural for him [the Yorkshire Ripper] to join the cult of satan’, and ‘So, Muslim gangs now decide what happens in a British prison? How can a gang be active in a prison anyway? Who runs prisons!?’.
Reactions such as these need to be addressed. However, academic research tends to be less blatant, and has not focused on prison gangs and their role in prison radicalisation. Some of the best research on prison gangs has been published in journals. Such as Elizabeth Mulcahy’s, ‘The radicalisation of Prison Inmates’ (2012) published in the Journal of Human Security. It provides an analysis of the role religion plays in prisons and its links to radicalisation, prisoner vulnerability to radicalisation and the radicalisation process, but it is less focused on gang culture. Coretta Philips’, ‘It ain’t nothing like America with the Bloods and the Crips’ (2013) in Punishment and Society, uses narrative interviews with male inmates to explore the emergence of gangs in prisons in England and Wales. However, it only briefly touches on gangs as radicalised groups. The downfall is also that these pieces are outdated, being over five years old. In such a fast-developing field, with events continually occurring, up-to-date research is paramount. Charities, such as Catch 22, have produced work such as ‘Gangs in Prison: the nature and impact of gang involvement among prisoners’. This begins the conversation on the existence of prison gangs in England and their impact in custody, but fails to look at recruitment methods for terrorist purposes and religious radicalisation; it is waiting to be explored further.
The best information on the topic of prison gangs and prison radicalisation arises from the prison system itself, the House of Commons, the Home Office and its Office for Security and Counterterrorism. Gabrielle Garton Grimwood presented a briefing paper to the House of Commons (April 2016) that provided context to Governmental concerns in regards to extremism in prisons. It identified peer-to-peer radicalisation as the main concern, with recognition of recruitment of vulnerable inmates to prison gangs, with specific examples of recruitment through gangs linked in some way to terrorist purposes. King’s College’s International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation and Political Violence worked with the British Home Office (2018) to collect data on the policies and approaches of 15 different countries towards radicalisation and de-radicalisation. Among other things, it demonstrated that prisons matter in the narratives of radical and militant movements, and that prisons are not just a threat; they can become net contributors to the fight against terrorism.
Former Prime Minister David Cameron acknowledged that ‘we need wholesale reform’ of our prisons. He declared: ‘I am prepared to consider major changes… for dealing with prisoners convicted of terrorism offences’. Current (but not for much longer) Prime Minister Theresa May began to look at preventative measures to deal with radicalisation in prisons following the Westminster attack in 2017, with growing fears that the attacker was groomed for extremism in prison. Unfortunately, little progress has been made on this issue with Brexit taking the limelight.
It is important that more extensive research is conducted on how Islamist groups are recruiting in prisons and whether there is a link to prison gang culture, so that policy makers are better equipped to tackle the worrying trend of prisons representing ‘hotbeds’ of radicalisation.
