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Should
Radical Islamists Be Segregated in Prison?
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Should
Islamist radicals be segregated in prison? All radicals, or only those
convicted of terror crimes?
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What to do with Islamist prisoners? Should they be segregated, in
which case they may further radicalize each other; or diffused, in which
case they may radicalize other prisoners, as happened with the Charlie
Hebdo-Hyper Cacher jihadis? Currently, France
and the United
Kingdom are grappling with this issue.
France is in the process of segregating radicalized prisoners in
dedicated prison blocks in five prisons around the country. Those
eligible for segregation include mostly those convicted of terror
offenses, but include other "selected" prisoners as well. The
French prisons appear to have devised a detection tool measuring
likelihood of radicalization, or perhaps, of committing jihadi violence.
The article refers to a "'detection grid' assessing personality,
background, and observed religious behavior." Unfortunately, no information
is given about the data or methodology behind it. (By way of example, the
Salient Factor Score used for measuring likelihood of recidivism by
parole-eligible federal prisoners relies on data collected from 1,806
cases studies.)
By contrast, the UK prisons are reportedly considering segregating
only those convicted of Islamist terror offenses. The UK has identified
roughly 1,000 prisoners "at risk" of extremist radicalization.
The article offers no information about the means by which the UK prisons
have identified at-risk prisoners. The goal of segregating the convicts
would be to protect the at-risk individuals. The article contains no
information about whether segregating convicted terrorists would leave
potential radicalizers, who have not themselves been convicted of
terrorist crimes, among at-risk prisoners.
Unfortunately, neither prison system seems to have devised a credible
de-radicalization program. Reportedly,
the UK is currently trying to develop such a program. Concentrating
radical prisoners makes it less likely de-radicalization would work.
It probably goes without saying that in seeking first to do no harm,
to paraphrase the Hippocratic oath, prisons should not ask Islamist
organizations to vet
their Muslim chaplains,
as the United States Bureau
of Prisons has been doing.
One criticism: the article about the French scene continues to mouth
the platitude that poverty causes radicalization. For example: "Many
of France's Muslim prisoners are disadvantaged and disaffected young men
from communities blighted by poverty and unemployment." Compare that
to the conclusion of a New Yorker article on the subject from last
summer: "the profiles of French jihadists don't track closely with
class; many have come from bourgeois
families."
Johanna Markind is associate
counselor at the Middle East Forum
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