Few inmates in 'jihadi jails' as UK fears human rights backlash

Britain's high-security prison units created to house the country's most dangerous convicted terrorists, dubbed as "jihadi jails", are going empty as the Prison Service fears being legally challenged on human rights grounds.

Fewer than half the jail cells created to hold Britain's most dangerous Islamist terrorists are occupied, despite an unprecedented threat from Islamist extremists, according to The Sunday Times.

The Prison Service is failing to lock up terrorists in the "separation centres" created for them, because it fears being sued for breaching their "human rights", the report quoted prison sources as saying.

"The Prison Service can easily find more terrorists to place in the separation blocks, but they're afraid of the legal challenge and of being accused of breaching human rights," the source said.

While there are more than 160 convicted terrorists in prison, only seven, including the notorious Islamist preacher Anjem Choudary, have been moved to the units. The units were created to house those who pose a significant "national security threat" and were introduced after an investigation into prison extremism commissioned in 2015.

The UK's Prison and Probation Service guidelines say referrals to hold prisoners in the separation units must be "legally defensible".

The blocks can house 18 people in single cells on three high-security sites, including Her Majesty's Prison (HMP) Full Sutton in East Yorkshire and HMP Frankland in Durham.

The HMP Woodhill centre in Milton Keynes has six cells and had been due to open this month but is still empty.

"We have delivered on our plans to separate the most dangerous subversive prisoners, preventing their influence over others," said a statement from the UK's Ministry of Justice.
 

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