UK to lock up radicalized inmates in special units

By Ahmet Gurhan Kartal

LONDON (AA) - Some of Britain’s “most dangerous and radicalized extremists” are to be segregated from other prisoners in what the government has described as a "separation center" it was revealed on Thursday.

HMP Frankland, a prison for high-risk male inmates in northern England, will be the site of the first such center -- one of three planned.

The first of three such centers, it will “help stem the flow of radicalization behind bars and prevent their influence over others,” the Justice Ministry said.

More than 4,500 officers have received what the government called “the latest specialist counter-terrorism training” to deal with the prisoners, but the government has not said how many inmates will be kept in the specialist unit.

“Offenders who are involved in planning terrorism or are considered to pose a risk to national security,” as well as “those seeking to influence others to commit terrorist crimes, or whose extremist views are purposely undermining good order and security in the prison estate,” may be placed in the centers, according to the government.

“The most dangerous and subversive offenders are now being separated from those they seek to influence and convert -- an absolutely crucial element of our wider strategy to tackle extremism in prisons and ensure the safety of the wider public,” Prisons Minister Sam Gyimah said.

Britain's government had promised in its last Queen’s Speech to review its counter-terrorism strategy in the light of terrorist attacks in Manchester and London.

The government has been examining the issue of radicalization in prisons for a number of years. A 2015 Home Office counterterrorism study used in a parliamentary report in April last year identified jails as providing "an atmosphere where individuals are particularly vulnerable to extremist ideological messages".