Report to be released Monday investigating the links between prisons and terror attacks A number of attacks in the UK and across Europe have been committed by people who spent time in jail LONDON: Inmates are not being prosecuted for terrorist acts committed in prisons and extremism is being “encouraged,” according to a government-backed independent review. Jonathan Hall, appointed by the Home Office as an independent reviewer of terrorism legislation, said that there were increasing links between prison and terror attacks and that offenders are not being properly punished for owning radical material, preaching extremism and inciting violence. “There has been a steady drumbeat over recent years of terrorist attacks against prison officers, and an increasing number of individuals who may well have formed their terrorist intent in prison under the influence of high-status terrorist prisoners,” he told The Times. “If terrorism exists [in prison] then it ought to be dealt with. We need scrutiny of how prisons operate to either contain, or worse encourage, terrorism.” Hall will release the full findings of an inquiry into terror offenses and recruiting within prisons on Monday. A number of UK attacks in recent years have been committed by individuals with a history of incarceration. Khairi Saadallah was recently handed a whole-life sentence for the murder of three last year, committed just weeks after leaving prison on non-terror related charges. He was befriended by a radical preacher during his time in jail. The 2019 London Bridge attack, in which two people were killed, was committed by a man released from prison on parole after serving eight years of a 16-year sentence. A report last year by the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation at King’s College identified 22 terrorist attacks across Europe in the past five years, including five in Britain, where the perpetrators had made connections in prison. Hall previously warned that prisons have been treating terror offenses as disciplinary issues rather than charging its perpetrators under the Terrorism Act. He said that encouraging and inciting terrorism were successfully combated in the community with criminal charges and that he would explore whether the Terrorism Act could be used more to clamp down on such activity within prisons. Eilish O’Gara, research fellow at the Henry Jackson Society, warned that prisons present the perfect opportunity for terrorist recruitment. “You get charismatic, influential and radical people among the most vulnerable, hopeless people. It is the perfect fertile environment.” A Ministry of Justice spokesperson said: “Our tough measures to stop extremists spreading their poisonous ideologies in prison have been stepped up. We ended the automatic early release of terrorists and our new legislation means they will also face tougher sentences and monitoring on release.”