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1. It is a hard moment to get this message across, but overall, reoffending by released terrorist prisoners in England & Wales is very low.
Much, much lower than the levels seen for other types of offenders.
Much, much lower than the levels seen for other types of offenders.
2. No risk assessment tool/framework used anywhere in the world, for any type of prisoner, is 100% accurate. It is folly to expect that terrorism-related frameworks can achieve what all of the rest have failed to do.
3. This does not mean that we should give up on risk assessment and management.
4. The past 10 years have witnessed the development of a range of specialist risk assessment tools & frameworks focused on dealing with terrorist and violent extremist prisoners. These include ERG22+, VERA2R, TRAP-18, & more.
5. The research and evidence around these tools is improving with each passing year. For example, check out:
8. https://content.iospress.com/articles/international-journal-of-developmental-science/dev170243RAP-18
9. More of this type of research is needed and should be encouraged
10. Some good programmes have been developed to work with terrorist prisoners – in England & Wales notably Healthy Identity Intervention. Prisoners work one-to-one with a specially trained psychologist.
11. This is resource intensive, however, & there are waiting lists to go on it. As a result, some terrorist prisoners never have an opportunity to do it before they are released. ( @tamhussein reports Usman Khan fell into this category.)
12. If you want one concrete change from yesterday, more resources to run this type of programme should probably be close to the top of the list. BUT don’t expect it to be 100% successful in 100% of cases. That type of magic intervention just does not exist.
13. Released terrorist prisoners are managed under MAPPA arrangements in England & Wales. This involves Probation, Police, & other stakeholders working together to assess & manage the released prisoner.
14. Released terrorist prisoners will have licence conditions set. These typically can include wearing a tag, curfews, restrictions on where they can go, who they can meet with, internet use, mobile phone use, etc. Breaching conditions can lead to recall to prison.
15. The conditions are monitored and can be relaxed or made stricter depending on the assessments of the staff involved
16. Some released prisoners will be required/encouraged to take part in disengagement & de-radicalisation work. This can take a range of approaches, including participation in a formal programme &/or working with a specialist mentor
17. Again, it’s a tough moment to say this, but the system for managing released terrorist prisoners in England & Wales is generally regarded as one of the best in world. It is not perfect. But when other countries look for inspiration or comparison, they tend to look here first.
18. Finally, we do not need to scrap this system. But it could certainly use some extra resources.
