Abstract
It should come as no surprise that prisons can become breeding grounds for radicalisation and terrorism as prisons serve as reservoirs for society’s most dangerous individuals (Useem & Clayton, 2009). Prisons are places of vulnerability and they provide a space where radical and extremist ideologies can flourish. Despite being a popular topic among researchers and policymakers, there still remain significant gaps in our understanding and many unanswered questions. This paper provides a literature review on prisoner radicalisation. It specifically explores the role religion plays in prison and its link to radicalisation, prisoner vulnerability to radicalisation, the radicalisation process, and outlines the current debate as to where terrorist prisoners should be held. This paper concludes by identifying the major gaps in the literature and offering concluding remarks.
Highlights
Prisoner radicalisation is not a recent phenomenon and yet it is an area that is misunderstood and theoretically underdeveloped
An interesting study conducted by the United States Senate, Committee on the Judiciary, claim that roughly 80% percent of prisoners within America turn to Islam when seeking for faith behind bars [6]
One side indicates that Muslim groups in prison are breeding grounds for terrorists and the other side indicates that there is no relationship between prisoner conversion to Islam and terrorism [7]
Summary
Prisoner radicalisation is not a recent phenomenon and yet it is an area that is misunderstood and theoretically underdeveloped. The Office of the Inspector General of the US Department of Justice [17] claims radicalisation is "the process by which inmates who do not invite or plan overt terrorist acts adopt extreme views, including beliefs that violent measures need to be taken for political or religious purposes" It is important to note that 'Radical Islam' does not always mean violence and cannot be a sufficient cause of terrorism because most radicals are not terrorists [13,25] Overall, it is a well known argument among scholars that there is no 'one-size-fits-all' definition of radicalisation or terrorism that will satisfy all disciplines and practitioners. It outlines the different types of recruitment methods employed by Islamic extremist groups and discusses the process of radicalisation It concludes by examining an ongoing debate as to whether terrorists should be isolated, concentrated, or separated from ordinary criminals
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