Young Muslim offenders feel more at risk

In the report Muslim Prisoners' Experience: A Thematic Review, Anne Owers, chief inspector of prisons, warned that better training and support is needed for staff to engage with Muslim prisoners to prevent them turning to extremism.

The report, which included evidence gathered from interviews with 41 Muslim prisoners in young offender institutions, revealed that 45 per cent of Muslim prisoners in young offender units felt unsafe compared to 33 per cent of non-Muslim prisoners.

In the report, Owers said: "It is essential that the National Offender Management Service develops a strategy, with support and training, for effective staff engagement with Muslims as individual prisoners with specific risks and needs, rather than as part of a separate and troubling group.

"Without that, there is a real risk of a self-fulfilling prophecy: that the prison experience will create or entrench alienation and disaffection, so that prisons release into the community young men who are more likely to offend, or even embrace extremism."

In surveys, Muslim prisoners were more likely to report being restrained by staff. In young offender institutions, the figure was 21 per cent against 12 per cent, while 22 per cent (against 14 per cent) said they had spent a night in the segregation unit.

But surveys also showed that 53 per cent of Muslims in young offender institutions believed their religious beliefs were respected compared with 48 per cent of the rest of the population.

The report also identified that there was some staff concern about conversions to Islam and intimidation of non-Muslims in young offender establishments, although there was no evidence of prisoners being forced to convert. In several young offender establishments, staff raised concerns over young people who had converted to Islam while in prison.

But surveys also found that more Muslims than non-Muslims were able to speak to a religious leader of their faith in private — 70 per cent of Muslims in young offender institutions, compared with 54 per cent of non-Muslims.