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March 9, 2006

UK: Islamist Terror Suspects Stretch Prison To Limits

Yesterday, Reuters and the Daily Mail revealed that at HMP Belmarsh, the maximum security prison is stretched beyond its ability, due to the amount of Islamist detainees housed within its walls, held on terror charges.

Anne Owers (pictured), the chief inspector of prisons, said in a report: "The prison's high security and special security units were at full stretch, holding among others those suspected of the failed suicide bomb attempts of July."

Belmarsh holds about 900 prisoners, of which a quarter were foreign nationals, and over 100 were Muslims. High security terror suspects are secluded in their own high-security unit. She visited the prison in October, when four terror suspects were held in a special unit within this high security section.

These were not allowed unsupervised access to facilities, and could only associate in groups of two, and were not allowed to attend Friday prayers with other Muslim prisoners.

Nine Category A prisoners were held in another part of the secure list. Eight of these were waiting to be tried for attempted bombings on 21 July.

Another man was held on his own in another secure section, where he had a cell, a multi-gym, separate suite for visits and his own team of specialised staff, but he had "a very poor quality of life"

Her report stated: "The situation in relation to Muslim prisoners, in a prison holding many of those suspected of involvement in the recent terrorist incidents, was particularly sensitive and complex. It was noticeable that half the prisoners we surveyed ... said that they had felt unsafe at Belmarsh. This appeared particularly strong among the small number of Asian prisoners."

"Managers and staff believed that some younger Muslim prisoners were intimidating others into what was essentially a gang-related, rather than religious, affiliation," the report claimed. "On the other hand, young Muslim prisoners were concerned that ordinary social and religious behaviour on their part was misinterpreted by staff as being problematic."

"Although Afro-Caribbean prisoners did not think there was overt staff racism, Muslim prisoners felt their treatment by staff had worsened since the recent terrorist incidents. There were reports of intimidatory behaviour within the Muslim prisoner population not coming to the attention of staff because of poor staff-Muslim prisoner relationships," her report stated.

There are two imams at the center, but Cryer's report suggests that staff have not made enough effort to be "considerate" of Muslim needs.

Prison Service Director General Phil Wheatley insisted that there were "excellent working relationships between the multi-faith chaplaincy team, staff and managers." This, he said "enabled them to work together to ensure the diverse faiths and cultural needs of prisoners can be met."

Obviously, when prisoners are remanded in custody, and have not been found guilty of a crime in a court of law, there is a duty to treat such prisoners with a degree of "understanding".

But news from UPI states that Belmarsh will provide laptop computers to 28 top terror suspects.

The Mirror newspaper stated that officials have said that the prisoners will need the computers for preparing their legal defence.

This venture will cost the taxpayer $50,000, and though not having access to the internet, they laptops could be used to prepare CD-Roms which could be used to orchestrate criminal activity.

Halal food, prayer sessions, and now laptop computers. What next can be offered to these inmates?

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at March 9, 2006 8:05 PM

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