Some extremists convicted of low-level terrorism crimes should be spared jail if there are concerns about the success of deradicalisation programmes in prisons, MPs recommended yesterday. The Commons justice select committee made the call for community punishment rather than prison because counter-radicalisation work in jails was often “absent or inadequate”. The committee said that the situation in jails was of such concern that it could be counterproductive to send some terrorists to prison. Its report also disclosed that the Parole Board was concerned that tougher penalties for less serious offenders risked making them more dangerous because of radicalisation in prisons. MPs were responding to a Sentencing Council draft of the first comprehensive guidance on sentences for terror offences in England and Wales.

Source: The Times February 28, 2018 00:00 UTC