Second prison separation centre opens to tackle extremism

A separation centre has opened at HMP Full Sutton in a bid to stamp out extremism. It will allow more offenders to be separated from the mainstream prisoner population to stop them being able to spread their extremist views. What’s more, thousands of staff have received specialist training to spot signs of radicalisation, with every new prison officer enrolled on the programme and a new intelligence unit has opened. These measures come following a 75 per cent increase in prisoners convicted of terrorism-related offences in the last three years and seven hundred prisoners considered a risk due to their extremist views. The new intelligence unit will boost the ability of prison officers to target those who present the greatest extremist threat. The centre is at HMP Full Sutton is the second separation unit to open. The first opened at HMP Frankland in July 2017 and a third such facility is set to be in operation by the end of the year.