British prisons accused of becoming ‘jihadist training camps’ ‘Convert or get hurt’

‘Convert or get hurt’

Britain's prison system is facing renewed questions over the influence of Islamist gangs after claims that vulnerable inmates have been pressured or threatened into converting to Islam in order to obtain protection behind bars.

The allegations are not new. But they have returned to the political spotlight after Conservative shadow justice secretary Nick Timothy called on the Labour government to investigate claims of forced conversion and gang control inside prisons.

The government insists intimidation, gang activity and religious coercion will not be tolerated.

But official reviews of the prison system contain some uncomfortable evidence.

Warning signs were already there

A 2022 report by Jonathan Hall, the government's independent reviewer of terrorism legislation, found evidence of Islamist prisoners behaving as “self-styled emirs” and exerting controlling and radicalising influence over other Muslim prisoners.

The report described recruitment of vulnerable or isolated inmates, including through food, gifts and personal attention, while also recording allegations of conversion backed by implicit or actual violence.

That is considerably more serious than simply saying prisoners are choosing to change their religion.

The concern is whether conversion is genuinely voluntary when a prisoner believes refusing could leave him exposed to intimidation or violence.

‘Protection’ inside prison

A separate government-commissioned review by Colin Bloom also examined the relationship between faith, gangs and protection inside Britain's prisons.

The review recorded evidence that refusing to identify as Muslim could mean losing the supposed protection of a dominant gang on a prison wing — or potentially facing violence and intimidation from it.

Bloom also reported allegations that newly arrived prisoners had found Qurans placed on their beds accompanied by an unmistakable message: convert or risk being hurt.

That allegation should not be confused with ordinary religious outreach. Britain has every right to allow prisoners to practise their faith.

The question is what happens when religion becomes a weapon of coercion.

Labour says it is fighting back

The Ministry of Justice strongly rejects the suggestion that forced conversion is tolerated.

The government says most prisons show no evidence of gang-based extremism and points to measures designed to prevent extremist prisoners from acquiring positions of authority in religious worship.

Following Hall's review, His Majesty's Prison and Probation Service also carried out its own examination of faith-based gangs.

Officials say new training and improved data collection are being used to identify emerging extremist gang activity and disrupt it before it becomes established.

The government says forced religious conversion is not tolerated anywhere across the prison estate.

But the numbers raise questions

According to figures cited in the reports, Muslims now account for around 18% of the prison population in England and Wales, compared with about 6.5% of the general population.

That difference alone proves nothing about criminality, extremism or coercion.

But it does explain why prison authorities have to take the possibility of organised religious gang activity seriously.

And the official reports suggest the issue cannot simply be dismissed as an invention of political opponents or the latest culture-war controversy.

The real issue is control

There is an important distinction here.

A Muslim prisoner exercising his right to practise Islam is not the problem.

A Muslim chaplain helping prisoners is not the problem.

A prisoner freely converting to Islam is not the problem.

The problem is a gang — religious, racial, political or otherwise — using fear, violence and intimidation to control other prisoners.

If an inmate really is being told that conversion is the price of protection, Britain's prison service has a very serious problem on its hands.

Because once a prison gang can decide what another prisoner must believe in order to remain safe, the authorities have lost something far more important than control of a prison wing.

They have lost control of the prison itself.

‘Something is not right’

Colin Bloom's review reached an uncomfortable conclusion: prisons are unusually religious environments, and the scale of reported conversion to Islam in some establishments was sufficiently unusual to warrant asking what was actually happening.

That is the question the government now needs to answer.

Not whether Islam itself is the problem.

Not whether Muslim prisoners should have religious rights.

But whether organised gangs are exploiting religion to recruit, intimidate and control vulnerable men behind bars.

Britain has spent years being warned about extremist influence inside its prisons.

If the latest allegations are accurate, the issue is no longer simply about what happens when prisoners leave prison.

It is about what they may be learning — and who may be controlling them — while they are still inside.

SOURCE

Eezy Peezy.

Don't let them out.

From the OP: According to figures cited in the reports, Muslims now account for around 18% of the prison population in England and Wales, compared with about 6.5% of the general population.

That difference alone proves nothing about criminality, extremism or coercion.

We don't hate the media enough.

Edited yesterday at 10:36 AM1 day by impulse

I don't live there anymore. I don't care. Wonderful place back in the 1950s and 1960s. Sucks now. Brit Elites are responsible and there you have it. BOHICA. Enjoy embracing Islam.

From my limited knowledge of these things, in fact a video posted by someone here... the gist was not that white prisoners are being forced to convert. They choose to do so, in order to be protected from other prisoners, who are not necessarily Muslim.

Criminal big men have always used coercive means to build empires in prison.

Violence has long been institutionalised in British prisons. Throughout the 1960s, 1970’s control and order was enforced through a group of dominant prisoners known as the ‘Chaps’ or ‘Faces’, usually right-wing gangsters who actively colluded with guards in suppressing resistance amongst prisoners. In maximum security jails such as Parkhurst on the Isle of Wight, prisoners considered ‘trouble makers’ were targeted by guards who then encouraged the ‘Chaps’ to ‘deal with’ the prisoners so targeted.

This would often take the form of the ‘Chaps’ paying a mentally psychotic prisoner with drugs or tobacco to stab and sometimes kill the targeted ‘troublemaker’. With the support and help of the guards the ‘Chaps’ occupied the pinnacle of the prisoners’ hierarchies of power on the understanding of course that ultimately their role was to maintain ‘good order and discipline’ of the system.

In the 70s, Irish Republican prisoners were usually few in number, and were often targeted. The Screws, often former soldiers, turned a blind eye. That changed in the 1980s, when more were sent to English prisons. The Irish organised themselves, in prison, into paramilitary units.

The ‘Balcombe street active service unit’ came into the prison system in the late 1970s and warned the ‘Chaps’ that unless their attacks on Irish prisoners stopped their families on the outside would be targeted for bomb attacks, it had the desired effect and the violence against Irish prisoners ceased.

IRA prisoners then began to organise prisoners generally and were at the forefront of many of the major prisoner uprisings during the 1980s. In 1998 following the Irish peace agreement, IRA prisoners were released and a vacuum then developed into which the Chap element began to again fill.

In the noughties, history repeated itself. More Muslims were entering prison due to terroristic offences, and were, like the Irish, targeted, with the connivance of prison staff. This political Islam (not Islam per se) attracted the same sort of organisation and discipline that the IRA achieved inside and they fought back against these "chaps". Its no wonder that being offered protection in these gangs is so attractive.

Prison gang culture in the 60-70s was more informal, and operated to support the Prison officers. Popular culture lampooned this permissiveness; Porridge, The Italian Job. The IRA saw formalisation of structures. Religion became a dimension in the 2000s, but in additional, largley because of American cultural influence, other structures arose. A 2019 government report summarises this.

1. Traditional criminal networks; Drug trafficking, debt, contraband, intimidation and organised crime.

2. Street gangs; Groups originating outside prison whose relationships continue inside.

3. Ethnic/community alliances; Sometimes providing protection without necessarily being criminal gangs.

4. Muslim prisoner communities; Mostly ordinary religious communities, which should not be confused with gangs.

5. Muslim-identified criminal gangs; A smaller phenomenon in which religious identity can be used alongside conventional gang functions.

6. Islamist extremist networks; Ideological groups attempting to radicalise or exert influence.

Substitute "forced conversion" for hazing.

The Owers report over 10 years ago highlighted all this. This isn't really current news, just recycled old news.

1 hour ago, connda said:

I don't live there anymore. I don't care. Wonderful place back in the 1950s and 1960s. Sucks now. Brit Elites are responsible and there you have it. BOHICA. Enjoy embracing Islam.

Of course you don't care....you have your life in thailand. You are one of those elites you have spoken about.

3 hours ago, blaze master said:

You are one of those elites you have spoken about.

Dude - I want some of whatever your smoking. It's gotta be pretty good sh8t.

Could be cured by more bacon on the menu. Btw islam taking over in prison is a reflection of what is happening outside. Time for lefties to wake up smell the coffee and get deporting.

1 hour ago, connda said:

Dude - I want some of whatever your smoking. It's gotta be pretty good sh8t.

Earning 60k to approx 100k places someone in the top 1 percent of earners world wide.

Thats the sh8t I be smoking.

You are going to tell me your net worth isnt decent ? Yes you worked hard to build a successful life. Which is irrelevant to the fact that odds are you were a top 1 percent or better earner in your working life.

Come on now.

Britain allowed the jihadists into their country.

Now, they’re reaping the benefits.

9 hours ago, HolmesEquivelant said:

Britain allowed the jihadists into their country.

Now, they’re reaping the benefits.

So you're ignoring the analysis above.

10 hours ago, blaze master said:

Earning 60k to approx 100k places someone in the top 1 percent of earners world wide.

Thats the sh8t I be smoking.

You are going to tell me your net worth isnt decent ? Yes you worked hard to build a successful life. Which is irrelevant to the fact that odds are you were a top 1 percent or better earner in your working life.

Come on now.

My net worth places me as a boomer living a comfortable life in Thailand: a home and a guest house, 1/2 rai of land (wife's), I save or invest between 30% to 50% of my income each month. If I had to return to the US, I'd burn through all my savings and investments in short order and probably be living on the street as another homeless vet. Top 1% LOL! My income has me bouncing off the the official US poverty line my man. 1% That's rich.

25 minutes ago, stevenl said:

So you're ignoring the analysis above.

I prefer REAL world reporting and video over some bean counters graphs.

I have more if you desire.

If there is anything positive for Islam taking over it will remove the perverts taking over streets.

7 hours ago, connda said:

My net worth places me as a boomer living a comfortable life in Thailand: a home and a guest house, 1/2 rai of land (wife's), I save or invest between 30% to 50% of my income each month. If I had to return to the US, I'd burn through all my savings and investments in short order and probably be living on the street as another homeless vet. Top 1% LOL! My income has me bouncing off the the official US poverty line my man. 1% That's rich.

I see you avoided the numbers presented. Did you ever make 60k a year or more ? If so you were the 1 percent. Its really not that complicated.