We need to stamp out extremism in our prisons

Jonathan Hall QC, the government’s independent reviewer of terrorism legislation, has launched an inquiry into how our prison service is managing the threat posed by terrorism. The backdrop to his review is the rapidly accumulating evidence that, across our penal system, violent extremism has increased its grip resulting in outrageous attacks on either side of the prison walls.

In an interview with the Times, Hall said he found it ‘astonishing’ that convicted terrorists, far from being at risk from other vengeful inmates, achieve iconic status. This is not astonishing for those of us who have been writing and arguing for some years about the need for a transformed response to jail extremism that goes beyond benign containment.

The shifting demographics within our prisons, the rise of an oppositional prisoner culture and the collapse of order have all created a fertile environment for the growth of lethally toxic ideologies. The charismatic hate preacher now has virtually unfettered access to violent, troubled young men, either yearning for meaning or making pragmatic decisions for their own safety.