Muslims Rule

Muslims Rule!

By: Ben Gunn - HMP Shepton Mallet

Lifer Ben Gunn wonders whether Muslim prisoners ‘organising’ is solely around their religion.

So the Prison Service and Prison Inspectors are worrying about Muslims ‘organising’ in Belmarsh and Whitemoor. This could be a profoundly good thing - anything that unsettles the balance of power has the potential for positive change.

As is usual with anything relating to Muslims and Islam these days, the concerns being voiced are confused. Are these concerns about Muslims organising? That is, is this the usual worry about any type of prisoners organising? Or is this a worry about Islamic extremism? That is, is this a concern about terrorism? Or perhaps it is both?

I have always banged the drum about prisoners organising and exercising 'soft power' to resist the excesses of the modern prison system; all the more so in relation to Dispersals. This isn't a hark back to the 'good old days', because cons sticking together has always been an iffy concept, however since the introduction of the IEP Scheme the system has found it much easier to spilt us apart from each other and punish organisations.

This is why I instinctively cheered when I read about the Prison Service's concerns. If it worries them, then it means that (at long last) some cons have found a common bond around which they can gather and campaign. They have found something greater than their immediate concerns and because of that, lifted themselves out of the subjugated role of 'prisoner'. That is a good day in my book.

Having found a common bond, the question must be - what is their common cause? I understand that our masters are worried that the common cause may be political Islam, that is, extremism. Terrorists in prison; hmmm, isn't that the best place for them? So I'm not exactly worried about that idea; having looked after whole prisons full of terrorists in Belfast then I'm sure the Government has the mechanisms to deal with that problem.

Or is that idea just the usual popular paranoia over Muslims? Perhaps the shared idea isn't terrorism at all, but the idea that Muslims in prison are at the crappy end of the race relations experience? Is the beef that being a largely visible minority and Muslim meaning that their experience of prison is even worse than for the majority of prisoners? In an age where Muslims can be offered ham sandwiches during Ramadan and where one prison refuses to allow them to pray in groups larger than three, I can appreciate that any such complaints may have a basis in reality.

If this is the case then there is the potential for real change in the situation. When a quarter of the nick is so obviously unhappy, it raises the spectre of prisoners exercising their inherent 'soft power' - prisons only work with our cooperation, remember? And as Gandhi discovered, the word 'No' can cause an awful lot of difficulties for the rulers.

If the Prison Service lives up to past experience, it will attempt to deal with unhappy cons by the usual method of screwing down tighter on them. This tends to be the sign of managers who have little confidence in their abilities; it is a signature move of panic. It's short-term thinking at its best - refuse to deal with the problems we complain about and instead silence the complainers. This is a management philosophy that Homer Simpson would be proud of and the worst way to deal with a disaffected group, especially one where there is a fear that extremists may gain a larger foothold. If a group has legitimate complaints then to dismiss them, to suppress them, is a known method of pushing people right into the arms of extremists.

The alternative would be for prison managers to co-opt the complaints. Let them breath, accept that the way these people feel may have some legitimate basis in the experiences they have every day on the landings. Admit that things might be better. If Muslims are issued forbidden food in their holy month, and restricted in their prayers, then I can only imagine the smaller daily insults that the prison dishes out.

There are channels that already exist for this - prisoners' councils, race equality impact assessments etc. At best they are usually a managerial panacea; they are essentially ignored. If managers took these things seriously for once, then everybody could win.

Allowing disaffected prisoners to play a greater role in the way their lives are run reduces their disaffection. Prisoners are happier because their problems are addressed and managers are happy because there is less of a threat to good order. The paranoid will be happier, because it marginalises those at the extreme. Not to do these things only fosters a greater sense of injustice and plays into the hands of stupidity.

Disaffected Muslims could make this process easier for managers. Governors are a nervous breed and being faced by a mob of cons only makes them panic, but if these prisoners were to form a 'representative association' under the rules, list their complaints and offer solutions; organise themselves professionally - then governors may keep enough of a grip on their fears long enough to actually listen. It's a long shot, but it might be worth a try.

Never having experienced the joys of either Belmarsh or Whitemoor, I have to accept what I hear from others - that they are places where the only time cons voices are heard are when they are screaming after being bent-up. So the question is: are the Muslims reaching out to all the other cons, because all the cons in these places are being squeezed by the system? Or are they organising solely around their religion? This carries the risk of causing huge friction between different groups of cons and because of that, all efforts to push for change will fail amongst the mutually destructive warfare. It would be self-defeating and play into the hands of managers. They do enough divide-and-rule games, so why inflict it upon ourselves?

This development could be the seed of a greater movement; a shift in the tide that has seen prisoners being fragmented. I hope that the opportunity for change isn't wasted by either prisoners or managers.

n.b. Blogger does not allow the exclamation mark in either the title or labels for this post, I find this minor issue annoying and it is time that Blogger recognised the need for exclamation marks in the titles!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!