NCJ Number
228410
Journal
Criminology and Public Policy Volume: 8 Issue: 3 Dated: August 2009 Pages: 561-592
Date Published
August 2009
Length
32 pages
Annotation
This study examined the potential threat posed to the United States by the radicalization of prison inmates.
Abstract
The actual probability of prisoner radicalization found in this study was modest, with correctional institutions responding with urgency to the threat of radicalization. The reasons for a low level of radicalization were fourfold: (1) the increase of order in prison; (2) the creation of a boundary between prison and potentially radicalizing communities; (3) the efforts by agency leadership to infuse their agency with an anti-radicalization mission; and (4) the educational profile of inmates compared with the educational profile of terrorists within the United States and abroad. The radicalization of prisoners is one of the most discussed yet least studied aspects of the domestic terrorism threat. Prisons serve as a catchment area for society's most dangerous, and often most troubled, individuals. There are those that claim that prisons are a "breeding ground" for terrorism. However, the fact that an offender, after release, becomes involved in terrorist activity does not sufficiently demonstrate that the prison experience caused his radicalization. In examining the possible threat posed by the radicalization of prison inmates, this study argued that four factors have produced the low-level radicalization. Figures and references