A former prison governor has issued a stark warning after new data revealed a “worrying trend” across the nation’s prisons.
Speaking to GB News, Vanessa Frake expressed concern following a surge in White British prisoners converting to Islam.
Ministers have been urged to investigate the surge in white prisoners being forced to convert to Islam by Muslim gangs.
Data from the Ministry of Justice shows that one in five Muslims in prisons in England and Wales are white, which is nearly four times the rate of the general population.
The number of Muslim prisoners in jails in England and Wales has also increased, with Muslims now accounting for nearly one in five of the prison population.
Reacting to the data, Ms Frake told GB News that there has “always been gangs in prisons”, including those which conduct faith-based intimidation.
She said: “We’ve always had gangs in prisons, from faith-based gangs to postcode gangs, football gangs, white supremacist gangs.
“But this is a worrying trend that has grown over the years as the number of Muslim prisoners has risen.”
Vanessa Frake has warned of a ‘worrying trend’ in UK prisons after a surge in white prisoners converting to Islam
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GB NEWS
The former prison governor warned that stopping faith-based coercion and gang intimidation within prisons requires “strict intelligence”.
She said: “It requires a combination of strict intelligence, specialised staff training and reforms to prison management.
“You need to disrupt these individuals. You need to have really good intelligence systems to identify and disrupt.”
Asked by host Emily Carver whether prison staff may face “accusations of Islamophobia” if they take any action, Ms Frake admitted that it “may be a possibility”.
She told GB News: “But if you’ve got evidence and it’s evidence based and there are several things intelligence wise that you can do to identify individuals, and I’m sure they’ll say that they’re absolutely innocent.
As part of the scheme around 5,000 prisoners are expected to be released early in stages from October | PA“But you can move them around the prison estate, you can ensure that wings are not overrun with one particular type of prisoner or another. You can have visible staff authority.”
Ms Frake continued: “And I think that probably has a lot to do with shortages of staff, shortages of experienced staff to identify. You can even use AI technology to identify individuals to read various sort of slang, gang words.
“There are many things you can do, but the most important thing to do is to disrupt it by taking out those that are leading these gangs.”
The ex-governor argued that if the Government wants “safe prisons”, then they “must be prepared to put the effort in”.
Ms Frake told GB News that Government must be prepared to ‘put the effort in’ if they want ‘safe prisons’ in Britain
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GB NEWS
She concluded: “Identifying leaders of gangs is very important, but so is identifying those that are vulnerable, those that are susceptible to coercion to convert.
“And it’s very difficult, but if you want a safe jail, then you’ve got to you’ve got to prepared to put the effort in.”
In a statement, a Ministry of Justice spokesman said: “We do not tolerate intimidation, gang activity or faith-based coercion of any kind in our prisons.
“Prisons and staff act swiftly to clamp down on all threatening behaviour from any groups or individuals.”
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