GETTY Prisoners could be getting radicalised in prison

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he issue of radicalisation in prisons is a concern. Richard Walton

Earlier this month, the Government launched an investigation into whether jailed extremist preachers could be radicalising thousands of prisoners. It is believed some may have tried to radicalise vulnerable young prisoners, while others will have helped enforce a ‘culture of separation’ inside jails, helping create extremist zones. Earlier this year, the Metropolitan Police’s head of counter terrorism Richard Walton said there were not yet any meaningful measures to deal with the matter. He said: "We are convicting more people, so the challenge in prisons is bigger. "Where operations start from within prison or with somebody who has just been released from jail, you know there wasn’t much success in de-radicalising them when they were in. "There has to be more we can do. The issue of radicalisation in prisons is a concern. Everybody needs to think what more can be done."

GETTY IMAGES the Government is taking action, it says

However, the Government is taking action against the threat. Prison governors are now expected to carry out risk assessments when working out which prisoners share cells, as well as carrying out reception and induction interviews. Government guidance says: "Contact with prisons’ chaplaincy should take place, particularly for those whose initial assessments cause concern. “The chaplain’s initial assessment should seek to establish longevity and knowledge of faith and look for any indication that the prisoner endorses extremist ideology or supports terrorism.” A spokesman for the prison service said: “The Secretary of State has asked the department to review its approach to dealing with Islamist extremism in prisons and probation. This is being supported by external expertise and sits alongside the cross government work currently underway on developing de-radicalisation programmes.”

GETTY IMAGES Cuts to prison staff could lead to a rise in radicalisation

However, there still remains the concern that more could be done to deal with the matter. And earlier this year, the former head of the National Counter Terrorism Security Office Chris Phillips said cuts to prison staff could lead to an increase in homegrown terrorism. He said: "What we have actually is a prison population that's growing. "We have less officers generally in prisons than ever before and we also have less police officers to deal with them, so what we have is a growing haystack of extremists where we still have to find the single needle that's going to go off and do something really nasty. "But of course we've got less people to go and look for them as well so it's a really difficult thing for the police service and prison service to deal with." There were more than 12,000 muslim prisoners in England and Walesat the end of last year - up 120 per cent since 2002. Of those in jail, 123 - around one per cent - were jailed for terrorism and domestic extremism.

Former prisoner and blogger Alex Cavendish argued that not enough was being done to deal with the matter. He said: "While I was a prisoner I discussed the challenge of radicalisation and the recruitment of vulnerable inmates by extremist groups with other cons, both Muslim and non-Muslim and we all came to the conclusion that nothing was really being done about the issue. Simply banging-up a few prisoners suspected of radicalising others down the Block (segregation units) isn’t addressing the problem either. "Perhaps the situation is different in the high security estate (Cat-As) where most prisoners convicted of terrorist offences are likely to be held, but in lower security establishments there was no sign of any intervention or activity designed to combat extremism, so recruitment was taking place openly. Could this be yet another symptom of the current overcrowding and understaffing of our prison system?"

GETTY IMAGES Does more need to be done?