How jailing extremists for longer could make them more dangerous

Terrorists have been left free to network inside jails, where they have been radicalising other inmates, writes Lizzie Dearden

The ‘Three Musketeers’ terror plotters planned the 2017 London Bridge attack together after meeting up in prison (Reuters)

The “most serious” terror offenders will be kept in prison for longer under new government proposals drawn up in the wake of the London Bridge attack.

Priti Patel said ministers would “do whatever is necessary to stop these attacks from taking place”, but there are doubts over how the plans will improve public safety.

They would see extremists handed extended determinate sentences serve their whole sentence behind bars, and those convicted of some offences given 14-year minimum terms.

But while the prospect of locking terrorists up for longer is an easy win for public approval, experts are questioning the long term benefits of the policy.

Just days ago, The Independent revealed that up to 800 known extremists are currently in British prisons – almost four times the number of jailed terror offenders.

A succession of disturbing cases have demonstrated that even known terrorists are able to network with each other, and prison officers say Islamist radicalisation is rife.

In 2017, the government vowed to remove dangerous inmates from the general population by putting them in three new terrorist “separation centres”, but two are currently empty.

On 9 January, two inmates – including a man jailed for a previous plot – allegedly launched a terror attack while wearing fake suicide vests at HMP Whitemoor.

The previous day, a court heard how the Buckingham Palace sword attacker met the Parsons Green bomber and a man who claimed to know Isis executioner Jihadi John while in HMP Belmarsh and got tips on how to avoid conviction.

In 2017, three terror convicts known as the “Three Musketeers” planned a new attack together after being allowed to mingle in jail.

The Westminster attacker, Khalid Masood, is among the terrorists believed to have converted to Islam while in prison, while others have been radicalised on the inside.

Among them is Abdul-Rehman Gul, who was originally jailed for stabbing his mother in a domestic incident but had his sentence extended last year after sharing Isis propaganda in a young offenders’ institution.

Investigators found he had been using a smuggled phone to talk to other extremists on the encrypted Telegram app, and distribute weapons manuals.

It contained hundreds of images of terrorist propaganda, including Isis execution videos, jihadi emblems and photos of Osama Bin Laden.

The Ministry of Justice claims that prison officers are trained to spot extremism, but officers say they are too stretched dealing with a crisis of drugs and violence.

And while the government’s new proposals include more psychologists and specialist imams who aim to deradicalise terrorist prisoners, they will be implementing the same programmes used for Usman Khan before he launched his knife attack at Fishmongers’ Hall in November.

Officials hope that the increased number of specialist probation officers and lie detector tests for released terrorists will improve monitoring and combat “false compliance” with licence conditions.

But terror offenders are not like other criminals and the laws used to jail them do not always reflect the threat they pose.

For instance, an autistic teenager who had become radicalised in just a year and planned an Isis-inspired terror attack after reading the group’s propaganda online was given a life sentence.

But Anjem Choudary, who led a banned Islamist network that had been named “Britain’s most dangerous terrorist group”, was jailed for just five and a half years for supporting Isis.

Experts have warned that for some extremists, a prison sentence may solidify their beliefs.

Michael Kenney, who was in contact with al-Muhajiroun members for his book The Islamic State in Britain, said jailing them “often increases their status in the network and prolongs their activism”.

“Many persistent activists that go into prison come out stronger in beliefs,” he warned.

If the government is serious about preventing attacks, it cannot operate under the dangerous assumption that jailing terrorists for longer will keep Britain safe.