BOSTON – Six inmates at MCI Norfolk are facing discipline after a probe into information that some convicts at the prison’s Muslim chapel were preaching jihad speeches by a former Al Qaeda recruiter, FOX25 Investigates has learned.
FOX25 confirmed a report that inmates used recordings from Al Qaeda recruiter and U.S. citizen Anwar al-Awlaki, who was killed years ago in a drone strike, to preach jihad to others at the state prison.
The state Department of Correction has confirmed six inmates who attended the prison’s Muslim chapel are facing discipline for setting up a structure of power over other inmates, requiring uniforms and demanding contracts of allegiance.
Martin Horn, a professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice who once led New York City’s prison system and set up an intelligence center on Rikers Island, said law enforcement officials need to look at more than just the jihad preaching.
“You want to begin to look at, for example, their phone calls. You want to look at the records of who’s sending money to their account,” Horn told FOX25 Investigative Reporter Eric Rasmussen via Skype. “If one were going to try to recruit individuals to engage in the kinds of terrorist activities that most concern us, what better place to look for recruits than inside a prison?”
In a statement to FOX25, the state Department of Correction said, “It was determined that the ‘jihad’ that was being preached was in the context of personal spiritual struggle with regard to oneself, as opposed to a war against non-believers.”
A DOC spokesman said there is “no evidence that their unauthorized activities were being used as a recruiting tool for any extremist ideology.”
But Horn also says there’s good reason to investigate.
“Well, look, first of all, prisoners come out. Eventually, they’re all coming out to the community,” Horn told FOX25 Investigates. “And we know from several experiences that, often times, they can influence activities that occur on the outside.”
The Department of Correction confirms it consulted with federal law enforcement on the investigation but told FOX25 Investigates it found nothing illegal.
The six medium-security inmates, who have not been identified, are still facing discipline because prison rules forbid setting up any kind of hierarchy – like a gang – regardless of religion.
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It is not just an issue in the United States, related reading: About that Prison in the Heart of London
*** Boston Herald in part:
Correction stated that “jihad” was being preached, but it “was in the context of a personal spiritual struggle with regards to oneself, as opposed to a war against non-believers.”
DOC spokesman Chris Fallon said federal law enforcement authorities were consulted, and there is no active criminal investigation regarding the matter.
“No criminal charges have been brought against the members of this inmate group, as there is no evidence that their unauthorized activities were being used as a recruiting tool for any extremist ideology,” the statement from Department of Corrections read. “The inmates are facing administrative disciplinary charges as a result of their alleged misconduct.”
Possible punishments against the prisoners include loss of privileges, disciplinary detention, extra duty, room or unit restrictions, Correction said.
“To be clear, inmates are not allowed to create a hierarchical structure where they would have power over other inmates,” Correction’s statement reads.
**** So what role does CAIR have in the prison system? In part:
REHABILITATION PROGRAMS
As the prison population grows in religious diversity, administrators of correctional institutions must increase their multicultural awareness. Faith-based rehabilitation programs must be voluntary. Inmates should not be forced to participate in functions designated for adherents of other faith groups. Examples of such devotional practices include confession, singing and playing music, and holding hands with a chaplain preaching or reciting religious material.
But…. a 2009 article in the New York Times has some factual items stating otherwise:
The Justice Department’s inspector general issued a report in 2004 faulting the prison system for failing to protect against “infiltration by religious extremists.” But it said the problems rested not so much with radical chaplains but unsupervised inmates leading their own worship services.
The fomenting of extremist ideas among Muslims is not a problem in the New York State prison system, said Erik Kriss, a spokesman for the Department of Correctional Services. “We have a zero-tolerance policy for any chaplain advocating violence or extremist beliefs,” he said. The department holds meetings with chaplains to remind them of that, monitors religious literature coming in, and videotapes, audiotapes or sends guards to services, he said. In the past several years, the department removed from prison libraries an English version of the Koran that had commentary advocating violence to spread Islam, he said.
Islam is the fastest-growing religion in the prison system. About 30,000 to 40,000 conversions among federal prisoners take place each year, according to a study for the Justice Department by Mark S. Hamm, a criminologist at Indiana State University. About 6 percent of the nation’s 173,000 federal prisoners are Muslim.
Mr. Hamm’s study, published in December 2007, says that most inmates convert in prison for one of five main reasons: because they are in personal crisis, seek a spiritual dimension, are looking for a group to protect them, want to manipulate the system or are influenced by the outside world.
He concludes that generally, “there is no relationship between prisoner conversions to Islam and terrorism.” The danger lies, he said in an interview Friday, in “prison Islam,” which he identified as “small gang-like cliques that use cut-and-paste versions of the Koran” to give a religious overlay to their activities. The danger becomes acute when a member leaves prison and forms a radical cell.
Mr. Hamm said he has counted five examples of this since 2005, notably a plot hatched in a California state prison that year to attack synagogues, American military installations and Israeli officials. The four plotters belonged to a group called Jam’iyyat Ul-Islam Is-Saheeh, or the Assembly of Authentic Islam.
