Jihadist Recruiting Behind Bars
USEEM, BERT
Jihadist Recruiting Behind Bars ‘Individually disloyal patriots’ make poor recruits for terror. BY BERT USEEM Frightening claims are being made that U.S. prisons are breeding grounds for...
...The prison homicide rate is now lower than the homicide rate for the U.S...
...No signs of Islamic radicalization appeared in any of the three prisons...
...population...
...A central offi ce collects and collates this information, and ensures the fl ow of information to and from external law enforcement...
...Prisoner radicalization is like any other challenge to corrections offi - cials, from gangs and crowding to high rates of inmate violence and inmate suicide...
...Prisons bring together society’s most dangerous, and often deeply troubled, individuals...
...prisoners would have to reach further, to foreign lands and cultures, to fi nd groups with which to identify...
...This is our house, and we were all born Americans...
...This is in sharp contrast to the Muslim populations in Great Britain, France, Germany, and Spain, which are much less affl uent than the general populations of those countries...
...A 17-person blue-ribbon task force, assembled by researchers from George Washington University and the University of Virginia Medical School, issued a report in 2006 that concluded that because Islam feeds on bitterness and alienation (now ubiquitous in American prisons) the United States “is at risk of facing the sort of homegrown terrorism currently plaguing other countries...
...The primary reason is the increased safety and order in U.S...
...We interviewed inmates in the state’s two toughest high security prisons and one medium security prison...
...As Anne Piehl and I reported last spring in THE WEEKLY STANDARD (see “The Other Big Crime Drop” in the April 28, 2008 issue), the quadrupling of the prison population over the past 30 years has been associated with increased safety and security behind bars...
...Our central fi nding is that the rate of prisoner radicalization is not just low but falling...
...The fact that prison authorities have been able to create a relatively safe environment is a tribute to their skill and dedication...
...Prisons have become zones of safety—not the dangerous snake pits that New York Times crime reporter Fox Butterfield has portrayed as close cousins to the abuses uncovered in the Iraqi prison of Abu Ghraib...
...Ian Cuthbertson, the director of the Counterterrorism Program at the World Policy Institute, makes similar claims, calling prisons an ideal place for recruitment into jihadist organizations...
...Forty-one percent have household incomes of $50,000 or more, about even with the rate of the population as a whole (44 percent...
...Our interviews also suggest that inmates, as a whole, are patriotic, or more precisely “individually disloyal patriots”—that is, they do not see themselves as bound by the laws of society, but do not take delight in damaging the country...
...This is outside the realm of possibility of most inmates...
...Whatever the balance between the two sentiments, most inmates describe prison as a hostile environment for the formation of a radical cell...
...In surveys, Muslim Americans express generally positive views of their own lives and American society...
...Those on the inside— inmates, line correctional officers, intelligence officers, and senior administrators—consistently report that not only is inmate radicalization far below the alarmists’ claims, but barely a trace can be found...
...This sentiment, however, was moderated by a (perhaps) stronger antipathy toward “snitches...
...There are not large pockets of radicals found in the general Islamic population...
...The greater order achieved during the prison buildup, moreover, would allow officials to quickly see, and do something about, any signs of radicalization...
...Just as prisons are “schools for crime,” he says, in which petty offenders “graduate” into more serious criminal careers, so too our prisons have become “universities” for advanced training in terrorism...
...In total, we interviewed 200 prison offi cials and 270 inmates...
...The Pennsylvania Department of Corrections, for example, stresses down to the lowest staff levels the importance of watching for signs of radicalization and reporting them up the chain of command...
...Those individuals truly dangerous to the country will certainly be more, not less, dangerous if left on the streets...
...BY BERT USEEM Frightening claims are being made that U.S...
...By 2005, prison riots had become rare, almost to the point of disappearing...
...corrections has become safer and more orderly...
...For example, in 1972, there were over 90 prison riots...
...Some inmates even said that they would see it as their duty to report to authorities if they learned of a terrorist cell within the prison...
...This lower prison homicide rate exists before adjusting for demographics, not to mention criminality...
...For radicalization to take place behind bars, U.S...
...Based on recent field research, including extensive interviews of inmates and prison staff in state and federal prisons, I have come to a far less pessimistic assessment...
...The premise is that the dangerous and unstable people who populate prisons can all too easily be swept into radical religion and terrorism...
...These are problems to be attacked and solved, rather than inevitable or overwhelming circumstances...
...Behind bars, they will be incapacitated for a period and, if all goes well, perhaps even turned around...
...Couldn’t turn against this country...
...both are now relatively safe and orderly...
...For the most part, Muslim Americans are solidly middle class...
...While they are willing to exploit criminal opportunities, they do not perceive American society as the enemy...
...One inmate stated, “Even though we’re criminals, we see ourselves as Americans...
...An unanticipated benefi t of these efforts is lowering the risk of homegrown terrorism...
...An inmate in a maximumsecurity prison told us, “If someone comes in slanting toward terrorism, we will know before the offi cers...
...The claims that prisons are breeding grounds for terrorism have it backward...
...Also inhibiting inmate radicalization is the social standing of the estimated 2.5 to 3 million Muslims in America...
...My research, conducted with Obie Clayton of Morehouse College, involved visits to 27 prisons in nine jurisdictions...
...The two high security facilities were largely out of control a decade ago...
...Across a wide set of measures, U.S...
...prisons are breeding grounds for Islamic terrorism...
Vol. 13 • September 2008 • No. 48
