Islamic terrorists and other Muslim prisoners at one of Britain's highest security jails have almost doubled in number in the past two years, according to new figures.
The population of Muslim inmates at Whitemoor prison in Cambridgeshire has risen from 73 in 2006 to 140 last year - representing around a third of all prisoners.
The statistics are revealed after reports that Muslim gangs were being left by staff to "police themselves" at the jail. Staff did not know how to "challenge inappropriate behaviour", prison inspectors said.
H.M. Prison Whitemoor is just one of the eight prisons which make up the High Security Prison (formerly called Dispersal Prisons) estate. The above story would indicate that some people are concerned about this development. However, there is a worrying aspect which the journalist Richard Edwards has failed to report. And that is, in the Republic of Ireland the prison service spends more money on their open and resettlement prisons than on the high security prisons. In England, the Prison Service does it the other way around, that is, spending more money on the HSPs than the open/resettlement estate.
Public protection here has two elements. Firstly, preventing prisoners from escaping from secure conditions. Secondly, to cut down on the amount of re-offending. I would argue that in England that this arse backwards approach is disproportionate. Less money needs to be spent on the HSPs and more money spent on rehabilitation thereby protecting the public more from those who re-offend. In other words, the record is stuck and needs changing.
3 comments:
When I was young (many years ago) I was always reading in the papers about how catholics were disproportionately represented in the prison population. There are plenty of reasons why this should be so; catholics were then overepresented in the poorest section of society. Also it's easy to get a conviction against somebody from a poor and unpopular community - hardly true of catholics today, but certainly so of Muslims. Handy for the cops when their clear-up rates are low, have a purge on the easy targets.
Mind you, there was a catch with the catholics. In those days prisoners only got out of their cells on a sunday to attend a service. CofEs had one service, RCs had two. A mate of mine told me that, whatever your faith or lack thereof, you had to declare yourself RC for that second trip out.
Jemmy Hope: We also used the church service to smuggle tobacco and/or dope to prisoners undergoing punishment in the Segregation Unit, it was the only time it was permitted for them to mix under the same roof.
How long before we see 'Bloggers in jail double in two years'?
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