Belmarsh case highlights prison radicals threat

Prisons watchdog Anne Owers says a south-east London prison's difficulties with radical Muslim inmates has "wider resonance" across the UK's prison system.

HMP Belmarsh came under attack today from Ms Owers, whose latest report warns staff are struggling to deal with a small number of Muslims being held as terror suspects.

The report says the small group of radical Muslims are providing a "challenge" to staff and providers which is only being partly met.

"It was not apparent that all staff understood the complexities within and around their Muslim population, or were able to establish effective and appropriate relationships with them," it notes.

"This is something that requires attention throughout the Prison Service, though it is particularly acute at Belmarsh."

There exists a fear that some of the prison's other Muslim inmates, who total nearly 200 in Belmarsh as a whole, could be pressured into conversion to the "radical interpretation of Islam".

Measures to counter this through anti-bullying measures have to be tempered against a fear that disaffected Muslims could view such interventions as "deliberately provocative", however.

"The converse was also true: that any conversion to Islam, or any gathering of Muslim prisoners to pray or associate, could be interpreted wrongly by staff as threatening and evidence of radicalisation," it adds.

This could have the "perverse effect of alienating the great majority of practising Muslims".

Such issues "have a resonance far beyond Belmarsh", the report warns, before concluding that overall the prison is "visibly moving in the right direction".