An inquiry has revealed some prisoners act as “self-styled emirs” behind bars.
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It said the review found evidence that Islamist extremism is a “growing problem” in prisons, with “charismatic” prisoners acting as “self-styled emirs” that exert a “controlling and radicalising influence” on the wider Muslim prison population.
The most unsafe Islamist extremists will be removed from the general prison population and held in “specialist units” in the high security estate.
A government-ordered review into radicalisation in jails that accompanied today’s announcements suggested fanatics had attempted to engineer segregation and exploit a fear among staff of being labelled racist.
In their review, researchers said some prison imams faced intimidation, while inmates were confronted with “aggressive encouragement” to convert to Islam.
The disclosures emerged in a review led by former prison governor Ian Acheson and commissioned a year ago by then justice secretary Michael Gove.
It comes after a report found there was “complacency” at the “growing problem” of Islamist extremism in jails.
The Ministry of Justice said Governors have now been instructed to ban extremist literature and to remove anyone from Friday prayers who is “promoting anti-British beliefs”.
Staff members are reportedly being pressured into leave prayer rooms and Islamist prisoners are trying to prevent searches by claiming “dress is religious”.
Speaking ahead of her announcement, Ms Truss said: “Islamist extremism is a danger to society and a threat to public safety – it must be defeated wherever it is found”.
“The review concluded that cultural sensitivity among staff towards Muslim prisoners has extended beyond the basic requirements of faith observance and could inhibit the effective confrontation of extremist views”. The number stood at 8,243 a decade earlier.
The Government has said that it will implement a number of the report’s recommendations.
Of the 12,300 Muslims in British prisons, 131 are convicted terrorists, but Acheson will warn that they make up a hardcore who could be influencing impressionable and potentially violent convicts. There are eight high-security prisons in England and Wales and if you are going to need to have a unit in all or at least some of those, that’s going to be an extra cost.
Jailed known extremists will be kept away from other inmates in prison to prevent them from radicalising other inmates, the United Kingdom government announced on Monday.
New Justice Secretary Liz Truss said the measures were needed in order to stop the “spread of this poisonous ideology behind bars”, but critics questioned whether they were appropriate.
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He had already suggested the most unsafe jihadis may need better segregation to prevent them radicalising other prisoners.
