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The Terror Garden: Fighting radicals who grow behind bars

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By Luke Whyte

When FBOP Director Harley Lappin took the podium during an afternoon workshop at the 2009 ACA Summer Conference, the boisterous crowd of top level prison administrators and PhD-wielding psychologists fell suddenly, almost eerily, quiet.

Lappin was flanked by the International Corrections and Prisons Association President, Tony Cameron, and the Director General of Offender Programs and Reintegration with Correctional Service of Canada, Larry Motiuk.

Three of the most prominent men in modern corrections were about to lead one of the highest profile workshops of this year’s conference:

Radicalization in Prisons - An international perspective on terrorist recruitment.

“Radicalization is something we’ve dealt with since the day we let inmates out of their cells to communicate,” Lappin began. Yet, over the last decade, he continued, the game has changed, along with the players and the stakes.

Over the course of the two-hour workshop, Lappin, Cameron and Motiuk outlined an international methodology for approaching this new, high-stakes form of radicalization.

This article will break down that methodology into two parts:

1) Focusing on the international perspective presented by Motiuk and Cameron, part one will discuss the scope of the problem and the ideology of its participants

2) Based on an operational procedure outlined by Lappin, part two will discuss practical tactics and strategies for dealing with radicalization on a daily basis

Part I: Why the French are reading the Koran
Muslims are Europe’s fastest growing cultural group. They make up 15-20% of the population, constituting around 12-16 million people. Further, Europe’s Muslim immigrants are often impoverished and undereducated, making them susceptible to terrorist recruitment.

Seeing that the scope of the issue was beyond their control, the French government asked its citizens to start reading – and learning the values of - the Koran.

The French realized that once the policing of radicalization had moved beyond their control, the best offense became prevention through understanding.

Given the nature of the prison environment, a policy of “prevention through understanding” can help correctional staff, too.

Mandatory Koran classes are far from necessary, but by taking steps to learn what factors could cause radicalization in a particular facility (and the factors that could prevent it), we can decrease the discontent upon which radicalization breeds.

“In general, Muslim prisoners tend not to ‘act out’ with riots and such,” Cameron said. “So, by treating them well and encouraging participation in their religion, you undermine their incentive for radicalism.”

From a management perspective, this requires fostering what Motiuk refers to as a “culturally-competent staff”.

The Correctional Service of Canada (CSC) has developed a directory of cultural mediators, handbooks and intercultural conflicts management course to help better prepare staff to negotiate with a culturally diverse inmate population. You can learn more about this at their website: http://www.csc-scc.gc.ca/

Part II: Raising staff awareness
Make no mistake: Radicals do exist in our prisons and new ones are being trained all the time. Beyond understanding the factors that lead to radicalism, prison facilities need an operating procedure that combats it.

After 9/11, the Federal Bureau of Prisons completely restructured its system for identifying and containing radicalization. During last week’s workshop, Lappin outlined a few key points from this operating procedure. The most important of which was raising staff awareness.

What goes on behind quiet eyes?

Can you identify targets for radicalization in your facility?

Can you recognize the dynamics between leaders and followers within radical groups?

How do we decide when behavior is radical enough to warrant isolation, given that profiling and mistreatment can foster the very traits we seek to prevent?

Lappin suggested the following strategies for fostering staff awareness:

• Tackle a multifaceted problem with a multifaceted response:
- To whatever extent possible, any system for managing radicalization should include players from all parts of the correctional process
- This means police officers, line staff, treatment staff, wardens, healthcare providers, librarians, probation officers and anyone else with information about potential radicals

• Complex issues require complex knowledge:
- At face value, the “indicators of radicalism” outlined by the BOP are not particularly unique (circumventing security protocols, manipulating staff, passing messages, etc.).
- To get beneath the layers of awareness on the issue requires further research. A list of potential starting points is included at the bottom of this article.

• System-wide vetting:
- Anyone in the system could have radical tendencies or agendas.
- Administrators should run system-wide screenings of new entries like prospective volunteers and contractors
- Create a database of this information and share it with the appropriate people.

• Improve your monitoring capabilities:
- If you and your staff can’t understand what someone is saying – based on a language barrier – find someone who can.
- The FBOP can provide translators to facilities with significant need. Contact their central office at 202-307-3198.

Classifying and containing radicals
Finally, a good strategy for managing radicalization must include a system for classifying and containing radical inmates.

The BOP uses a three-tier system:

- TIER THREE: Low risk, yet susceptible to radicalization. Inmate can interact with other inmates but needs to be supervised rigorously.

- TIER TWO: Raised risk, highly susceptible to radicalization. Inmate can still be put in open environment but with extremely limited access to communication; mail, phones, etc.

- TIER ONE: High risk, requires isolation. Inmates should be secured at highest level possible. For BOP this means the ADX ‘Supermax’ in Florence, Colorado.

Keep your head
Radicalization is intense and dangerous stuff. However, all three of these speakers stressed that obsessing over the issue, like so many things, will only make matters worse.

“Pay attention to it. Analyze it. Understand it. But don’t go overboard with it,” Cameron said. “Remember, Nelson Mandela, Gandhi and Winston Churchill were, at one time, all considered radical prisoners, too.”

Further research:

The Corrections1.com team of editors and writers is committed to tracking down and reporting on the most important issues and interviews in the correctional field.

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