UK's
Flawed Solution to Prison Radicalization – Terrorist Group Therapy
by Patrick Dunleavy
IPT News
August 7, 2017
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 While the most
positive news in the war on Islamic terrorism has come from military
successes against ISIS in Mosul and Syria, the overlooked recent failures
by authorities to effectively deal with home grown Islamists is a cause for
growing concern.
Whether it is by downplaying the threat or attempting to come up with
snappy-sounding strategies to deal with the growing list of suspected
terrorists "known to the authorities," the West is struggling to
reverse the tide of radicalization, particularly in the prison system. The
latest example is the UK's plan to deal with imprisoned Islamic
terrorists by creating "separation centers" that would
"...have an individualized care and management plan which sets out
realistic, achievable targets, while also taking into account the complex,
ideological/political nature of some of the risks that need to be
targeted."
What a bunch of gobbledygook.
Keep in mind that the type of inmates they are talking about include the
likes of Michael Adebolajo, convicted in the brutal killing of British Army
soldier Lee Rigby, and Anjem Choudary, the bigoted radical Islamic clergy
who inspired countless attendees at his Finsbury Mosque to
jihad, including ex-con "Shoe Bomber" Richard Reid. Choudary was
convicted of providing material support to the Islamic State terrorist
organization.
And what does the new care and management plan include? Well, one
element is developing "positive personal goals." This
sounds good, until you consider that the personal goal of a jihadist is to
kill infidels even if it means killing themselves as well. And the method
prison officials would use to attain these positive personal goals is a
"collaborative approach to expressing concerns and resolving
disagreements." In other words, group therapy for terrorists.
And who will oversee the progress these coddled killers are making?
According to the UK Ministry of Justice, there will be a panel of experts,
"including a psychologist, a chaplain, and lawyer" who will
review the inmate's progression (or regression) every three months. This
sounds like making of a joke – you know, "A priest, a shrink, and a
legal beagle go into a bar looking for a terrorist..." Only radical
Islamic terrorism is no joking matter.
One of the problems with this type of panel is the inclusion of clergy
who may not have been properly vetted. The presence of radical Islamic
clergy in the U.S. prison system is well
documented, most recently in the case of Edwin Lemmons and the Virginia Department
of Corrections. Lemmons was arrested by the Joint Terrorism Task Force
(JTTF) after having been radicalized in a New York State prison and
traveling overseas for "underground tactical training." Despite
clear evidence of extremist views, he was hired after his release from the
Florida Bureau of Prisons by the Muslim Chaplains Services of Virginia to
be an imam and Arabic instructor in Virginia prisons.
The number of violent terrorist attacks in the West carried out by
people radicalized in prison is growing. In April, Karim Cheurfi opened fire on a group of French police
officers, killing Capt. Xavier Jugele. Responding officers shot and killed
Cheurfi. Investigators found a letter in his pocket praising ISIS, along
with a list of other police stations he planned to attack. Cheurfi
previously spent 12 years in French prisons for attempting to kill police
officers. He was "known to authorities" and was on France's
radicalization and terror prevention and alert list, a notification system
that was created in the wake of the Charlie Hebdo attack.
Just prior to the attack, he traveled to Algeria in violation of his
parole conditions. Yet upon his return a French judge refused to revoke his parole and return him to prison.
In June, Blaine Robert Erb opened fire on a group of Baltimore police
officers wounding one before being shot and killed by the responding
officers. Erb was a career criminal. Video of the attack shows that, when he opened fire,
Erb was wearing what appeared to be Muslim thobe and head
covering, along with a long, red beard. These are indications of a
conversion to radical Islam, but this is unconfirmed.
Nevertheless, his attire and methodology was similar to career criminal
Edward Archer's attack on Philadelphia police officer Jesse Hartnett in
January of 2016. Archer's stated motivation was to obey Allah and defend the
Quran. Still, Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenny tried to argue that the violent
crime had nothing to do with Islam.
And just last week, four radical Islamic terrorists were sentenced to
life in prison after being convicted of plotting to bomb military, police, and
civilians in the UK. Three of them, Khobaib Hussain, 25, Naweed Ali, 29,
and Mohibur Rahman, 33, dubbed the "Three Musketeers" had already
spent time in British prisons for terrorist-related crimes. Now as they
return to jail, they can look forward to living in a newly constructed
"separation center" where they will be able to work on "positive
personal goals" and meet together daily to "collaborate on
expressing concerns and resolving disagreements."
That does not sound like a strong deterrent to future radicalized
terrorists or returning ISIS members bent on carrying out attacks on their
homelands.
Right now, the United States has approximately 450 people in prison for
terrorism-related crimes. Many will be released
in the next few years. We had better have a well-defined strategy in place
to deal with them in prison and a more stringent supervised release program
than currently exists. Simply asking them to develop "positive
personal goals" will not cut it.
IPT Senior Fellow Patrick Dunleavy is the former Deputy Inspector
General for New York State Department of Corrections and author of The Fertile Soil of Jihad. He currently
teaches a class on terrorism for the United States Military Special
Operations School
Related Topics: Patrick
Dunleavy, prison
radicalization, rehabilitation,
separation
centers, Edwin
Lemmons, JTTF,
Karim
Cheurfi, Xavier
Jugele, Blaine
Robert Erb, police
shootings, Edward
Archer, Jesse
Hartnett, Jim
Kenny, "Three
Muskateers" terrorists
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