Prisoners refusing to join radical Islamist gangs are being held in isolation to keep them safe from death threats and attacks.
Officers are keeping vulnerable prisoners in segregation units at HMP Frankland in Co Durham to separate them from Islamic extremists, the Times reports.
The prison, one of the highest-security jails in Britain, is said to have become so overrun with Islamic gangs that its ‘terrorist separation centres’, which were built in a bid to stop terrorists from radicalising others, have become defunct.
This has caused other prisoners into isolation units as they are believed to be at risk of facing death threats or being attacked if they refuse to join the gangs.
The prison has been accused of not tackling the issue due to a power struggle between radical Islamists and other inmates.
Former prison governor Ian Acheson, who also served in the Home Office as the director of community safety, warned that the issue could lead to race riots inside the prison and believes it could represent a ‘national security threat’.
He blamed ‘weak leadership at the top distracted by progressive fads’ as well as officials being ‘scared by allegations of racism’.
Acheson added that forced isolation of vulnerable prisoners reflected the wider problem in the prison estate and warned not addressing the issue of Islamism in prisons would fuel the far-right.
Officers are keeping vulnerable prisoners in segregation units at HMP Frankland in Co Durham to separate them from Islamic extremists. Pictured: an isolation cell
The prison, one of the highest-security jails in Britain, is said to have become so overrun with Islamic gangs that its ‘terrorist separation centres’, which were built in a bid to stop terrorists from radicalising others, have become defunct
This has caused other prisoners into isolation units as they are believed to be risk of facing death threats or being attacked if they refuse to join the gangs: Pictured: a wing at the prison
Tony Wyatt, a leading criminal defence barrister at Christian-Wyatt Law, discovered the use of isolation units when visiting his clients at the prison.
He said some prisoners are being forced to serve their sentences in ‘total lockdown’ due to the breakdown in order.
Mr Wyatt said: ‘There are so many who are members of Muslim gangs in prison, you just can’t contain the problem. If the solution was to separate them – and I’m not suggesting it is – you would need entire prisons dedicated to that separation. And not just one prison, multiple prisons. That’s the scale of it’.
An independent report on terror legislation by Jonathan Hall KC in 2022 found that terrorists had seized control of wings and set up sharia courts in some prisons in England and Wales without prison staff intervention because they were scared of being accused of Islamophobia.
Many of the 800 men locked up in Frankland are murderers, high-risk sex offenders or those convicted of terrorism-related offences.
Charles Bronson, the nation’s ‘most dangerous prisoner’, and Peter Sutcliffe, the Yorkshire Ripper, were held there.
Current inmates include serial killer and rapist Levi Bellfield, who murdered 13-year-old Milly Dowler, and Michael Adebolajo, who was convicted of the brutal murder of British soldier Lee Rigby, and Wayne Couzens, who kidnapped, raped and murdered in Sarah Everard in 2021.
In 2021, Sarah Everard was walking home from a friend’s house in Clapham, south-west London, when she was kidnapped by Couzens, a former Metropolitan Police officer.
Pictured: Former Metropolitan Police officer Wayne Couzens, who kidnapped, raped and murdered in Sarah Everard in 2021
Also inside HMP Frankland is Michael Adebolajo (pictured), who was convicted of the brutal murder of British soldier Lee Rigby
evi Bellfield, who murdered 13-year-old Milly Dowler, is another prisoner behind bars at HMP Frankland
Claiming she had breached Covid restrictions, he handcuffed her and drove her to countryside near his home in Kent where he raped and murdered the 33-year-old, strangling her with his police belt.
Couzens – who would eventually confess to what he had done – was given a rare whole-life sentence, with the judge telling him that he had abused his position to kill.
A year after Couzens was transferred to Frankland, it was reported that he had become friends with David Fuller – who was dubbed the Morgue Monster for defiling the bodies of more than 100 dead women at a hospital where he worked.
The most high-profile recent arrival was Urfan Sharif, 43, who is serving a life sentence for torturing and murdering his ten-year-old daughter, Sara.
He was moved to the jail after being slashed with the jagged lid of a tuna tin by two inmates at a high-security prison in London and is said to fear a follow-up attack.
Former British Army soldier Daniel Khalife was also reportedly moved to Frankland last month due to it being ultra-secure after he after fled Wandsworth Prison in September 2023.
He is understood to received a ‘hero’s welcome’ and was congratulated by inmates for his dramatic escape.
A source told the Mirror: ‘Khalife was brought and got a hell of a reception when he arrived on his wing. They were patting him on the back and treated him like a legend. It was a hero’s welcome. The other prisoners were cheering and clapping. They love him because of how he escaped.’
The most high-profile recent arrival was Urfan Sharif, 43, (pictured) who is serving a life sentence for torturing and murdering his ten-year-old daughter, Sara
David Fuller – who was dubbed the Morgue Monster for defiling the bodies of more than 100 dead women at a hospital where he worked – is also inside HMP Frankland
Daniel Khalife (pictured) is understood to received a ‘hero’s welcome’ at HMP Frankland and was congratulated by inmates for his dramatic escape from Wandsworth Prison
A parliamentary report in 2023 revealed that some prisoners at the jail had been offered bounties of up to £10,000 to carry out attacks on other inmates.
One took up a contract to fund his ‘dependency on vapes’.
Last year, an unannounced inspection found that while the establishment was rated as safer than other jails holding similar prisoners, there had been 147 assaults in the past six months, which was a third higher than in the same period before the previous inspection.
Frankland is one of three jails in England and Wales that has a separation centre reserved for the most dangerously ideological prisoners.
Across the three prison there are 28 places but during the last inspection by the prisons watchdog in 2022, only nine of the places were being used and the units at Full Sutton near York was closed.
The Ministry of Justice told the Times it did not recognise claims that HMP Frankland prisoners were being isolated to be protected from Islamic extremists. MailOnline has approached the MoJ for comment.
Recent figures published by the MoJ on Thursday revealed a 10 per cent rise in the average cost of a prison place in England and Wales from last year increasing from £52,000 to £57,000.
As of March 31, prisons are operating at near full capacity, with 87,919 leaving just 1,000 spare places.
The emergency use of police cells was reintroduced last month to hold prisoners as some jails in the northwest had no more room.
