NCJ Number
206772
Journal
Corrections Today Magazine Volume: 66 Issue: 4 Dated: July 2004 Pages: 52-54
Date Published
July 2004
Length
3 pages
Annotation
Corrections facilities must be provided with the resources to counter the recruitment of terrorists inside prisons and prevent terrorist attacks from both inside and outside prisons.
Abstract
There is evidence that prison inmates have been recruited to terrorist organizations and terrorist activities while they are in prison. The "Minimanual of the Urban Guerrilla" states that guerrilla operations should include prison riots, assaults on prisons and jails, and ambushes of the prison staff. Given this threat to correctional facilities by terrorist organizations, correctional staff must be provided with much of the same equipment, training, and preparation as first responders, so they may respond effectively to a terrorist incident. Terrorists are currently being held in a number of Federal, State, and local facilities, and there is little or no capability of accurately identifying them as terrorists or tracking their location and activities. Correctional administrators should have the best identification and tracking technology available to address this problem. The al-Qaeda training manual provides instruction for incarcerated "brothers" to continue to communicate with terrorists outside the prison or jail. The provision of adequate security against terrorism in a time of scarce resources requires innovative measures. One such measure is the leveraging of correctional agencies' resources and those of other public safety agencies at all levels. The Northeast Technology Product and Assessment Committee is an example of such on effort. Organized by the Massachusetts Department of Correction and supported in part by the National Institute of Justice, the committee is composed of members from each of the 13 correctional agencies throughout the northeast region of the United States. The committee meets quarterly to share information on emerging technology and products that are beneficial to the corrections field. The committee provides a vehicle for correctional agencies to leverage the experience of other agencies at little cost beyond the travel and per diem expense required to attend meetings. The National Institute of Justice has developed plans to establish a second committee in another region of the United States.