Experts fear prisons will foment radicalism.

TRACKING POTENTIAL TERRORISTS is a difficult proposition, even in the highly controlled environment of U.S. penitentiaries, according to a report on extreme ideologies among inmates.

"Out of the Shadows: Getting Ahead of Prisoner Radicalization" sparked a Senate hearing that asked, "Are terrorist cells forming in U.S. cell blocks?"

The report, produced by the George Washington University's Homeland Security Policy Institute and the University of Virginia's Critical Incident Analysis Group, argued that a lack of resources and understanding of the problem in the U.S. penal system means no one knows for certain whether there are festering beds of radicalism that could one day pose a threat to national security.

While racist and Christian extremist groups were mentioned in the report, and during the Government Affairs and Homeland Security Committee hearing, radical Islam was its main focus.

"While the federal prison system has made great strides in addressing the issue of religious radicalization and recruitment within prisons, our level of awareness and understanding is still quite limited, particularly at the level of state prisons, community corrections and local jails," said the report's co-author, Gregory Saathoff, executive director of the University of Virginia analysis group.

John Vanyur, assistant director of the correctional programs division at the Federal Bureau of Prisons, said his agency is committed to ensuring that prisoners under its charge are not radicalized or recruited for terrorist causes

However, of the nation's 2 million prisoners, only 7 percent are in the federal prison system. There is no way to track radical prisoners when they are transferred between systems. Saathoff suggested an integrated computer network that could be used to track such inmates. State and local prisons also need the expertise to spot inflammatory literature and screen out religious leaders who may voluntear at such facilities and surreptitiously spread radicalism, he added. There is currently a shortage of qualified imams who can administer to Muslims inside prisons, so inmates may turn to radical forms of the religion, the report said.

The most famous case of a prisoner allegedly radicalized inside a U.S. prison is that of Kevin Lamar James, who was part of an inmate-founded group, the Assembly of Authentic Islam. A cell first formed inside New Folsom State Prison in California carried out 12 armed robberies in an effort to raise funds for attacks on U.S. military facilities, synagogues and an Israeli consulate.

Despite this case, and evidence of ongoing attempts to recruit prisoners for radical causes, Javed Ali, senior intelligence officer at the Department of Homeland Security's office of intelligence and analysis, said such groups "while of concern and keen interest, do not yet present the level of operational threat that [is] seen in other parts of the world."

Nevertheless, in light of "homegrown" terrorists who have carried out attacks in Madrid and London, the department has formed a team to investigate "how, why and where radicalized ideas and beliefs develop over time in the United States."

The investigation carried out regional assessments in the California and New York/New Jersey areas first--and has moved on to examine "nodes" in the Midwest and Washington, D.C. area. The nodes can be any entity that individuals come into contact with during the radicalization process. They can include physical institutions, virtual online communities, charismatic individuals, written and recorded material or shared experiences, he said.

"Prisons, and the spread of various interpretations of Islamic extremist beliefs within them, in particular have emerged as a key issue of interest," Ali said.

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