Agents of the National Police transfer a detainee for jihadist terrorism, in September 2019. Mónica Torres
The Ministry of the Interior has interrupted, since the beginning of the year, the entry of new jihadist prisoners in the deradicalization plan launched in 2016, when Juan Ignacio Zoido (PP) was minister, due to its poor results.
As recognized by the department of Fernando Grande-Marlaska in a recent response to the Transparency Portal, Penitentiary Institutions no longer promotes "the inclusion of new inmates in the program because it is being reviewed and improved."
Since it was launched six years ago, only 52 inmates "with crimes linked to jihadist terrorism" have signed up for these reintegration workshops.
The last four did so in 2021, which are the only ones currently following the program.
In his response to Transparency, the Secretary General of Penitentiary Institutions, Ángel Luis Ortiz, details that on May 13 there were 98 convicted or remand prisoners linked to crimes of jihadist terrorism, most of them linked to the Islamic State (ISIS). English), spread over 25 prisons.
Of these, those of A Lama (Pontevedra), Albolote (Granada), Villena (Alicante), Córdoba and Teixeiro (A Coruña) are the ones that guard the most jihadists, six each.
To this group, Interior adds another 44 inmates, who although they were imprisoned for common crimes, they have been detected proselytizing radical Islam in prisons.
Another 68 inmates are under observation because "they have revealed attitudes or behaviors that could be considered indicative of violent radicalization of an Islamist nature."
More information
The arduous task of reinserting a jihadist prisoner
The now paralyzed plan, created in October 2016 under the name
Framework Program for Intervention in Violent Radicalization with Islamist Inmates,
set as its objective "the prevention, disengagement and deradicalization of those inmates with a deep-rooted assumption of an extremist ideology."
The document contemplated that the inmates who signed up voluntarily ―“it is relevant that the program be perceived [by the prisoners] as an instrument of support and never as an imposition of the prison administration”, it was read in the same― pass in the approximately six months that the program lasted for three phases that added 19 steps.
The first sought "personal self-knowledge";
the second, the "modification and personal change" to achieve "empathy towards real and potential victims" of terrorism;
and the last, to make them aware of the existence of a "cultural and religious pluralism" so that they show "a respectful and tolerant attitude" towards other faiths.
That first year, 15 inmates signed up, according to Penitentiary Institutions in its response to Transparency.
The plan was, in part, retouched in May of that last year, even with the PP in power, with the launch of an "instrument for evaluating the risk of violent radicalism", a document that prison psychologists had to be completed on all prisoners convicted of jihadist terrorism or who, despite having been admitted for committing common crimes, had shown signs of religious radicalization.
The document included a total of 39 aspects that should allow determining at what level of radicalization the inmates were and the possibility of reinserting them.
The following year, however, the number of jihadi prisoners who signed up to participate in the program dropped sharply to three.
That same year, the National Strategy against Terrorism prepared by the Grande-Marlaska team advocated paying "special attention to penitentiary centers" and opened the door to reinforcing the teams of Penitentiary Institution officials who watched over these prisoners.
Even then, changes were being considered in the deradicalization program given the modest results it produced.
The following years confirmed this trend.
Thus, in 2020 there was only one intern interested and, the following year, four, who are the ones who are currently in the program.
In 2022, the new incorporations were paralyzed.
Programs to reintegrate jihadi inmates have provoked criticism and misgivings among prison officials.
Prison sources assure that one of the reasons for the failure of the implementation in 2016 has been "the shortage of personnel and resources" to apply it.
"There is a lack of psychologists and a lack of security personnel with adequate training," says an official who works with Islamist inmates.
In a conference held in February 2020 in Madrid, in which prison workers and experts from 11 countries of the European Union (EU) participated, it was pointed out that the deradicalization of these prisoners was an almost utopian objective and that it was more realistic " settle for desistance”, that is, get them to abandon the idea of using violence even if they maintain religious radicalism.
"Many inmates don't even know that the program exists and others, who do know about it, are reluctant to join because they don't identify themselves as jihadist prisoners," says a prison employee who works with them.
This same source points out that most of these inmates "are not problematic inside the prisons" as they do not have a hierarchical organization behind them.
“A significant number are convicted for spreading jihadist ideology or for self-indoctrination, not for having perpetrated violent actions.
In addition, many show their repentance to reach agreements with the Prosecutor's Office that allows them to reduce their sentences.
They therefore have a profile that does not fit the one targeted by the 2016 program, hence its failure″, they add.
Subscribe to continue reading
read without limits
Keep reading
I'm already a subscriber