SERA Preventing radicalisation in prisons -

P a g e | 14 ERASMUS+ N° 580247-EPP-1-2016-1-FR-EPPKA3-IPI-SOC-IN themselves ‘the rigorist Salafist band’. The Pontourny centre was closed down in 2017 and in a damning report, the French Senate admitted to the policy’s failure (Sénat, 2017). One programme was nonetheless commended by the Senate as yielding promising results, namely the judicial programme of deradicalisation implemented in Mulhouse. The programme targets those prosecuted for offenses related to radical Islam, with the exception of terrorist acts, and is run with the assistance of a team of psychologists and educators (Le Parisien, 2015). It relies on an individualised, tailored approach, and aims to enable participants to regain ‘free will’ through a variety of activities, including workshops and sessions several times a week, as well as cultural and sports activities, outdoor treks and a visit to the former Alsatian concentration camp at Struthof. The latter is an attempt to let participants see with their own eyes the devastating effects of extremist violence. The programme has been in place since 2015 and so far, has been considered as one of the most successful preventive initiatives in the area of radicalisation in France (Poussard, 2017). New French national plan to prevent Radicalisation On 23 rd February, 2018, the Prime Minister together with the Ministers of Home Affairs, Justice and Foreign Affairs launched a plan entitled “Prevent to Protect”, introducing 60 measures groups in 5 chapters : 1. Uniting against radicalisation 2. Complete Detection / Prevention networks 3. Understanding and anticipating the evolution of radicalisation 4. Professionalise local actors and evaluate practices 5. Adapting to disengagement. In Chapter 5, some actions focus specifically on radicalised inmates: Measure 55  To develop the capacity of prisons on identifying radicalised prisoners  To create new hubs in prisons for the evaluation of radicalisation  To strengthen the multidisciplinary support for radicalised female inmates  To reinforce the intervention for minors under the jurisdiction of ‘the judge of the children’, through multidisciplinary evaluation and educational investigation by judicial measures Measure 56  To identify the distribution of radicalised and proselytized adult inmates that require separate care from ordinary detention (by the end of 2018, 450 places in isolated management will be created) Measure 57  To develop programmes for the prevention of violent radicalisation in all penal establishments that can accommodate prisoners prosecuted for acts of terrorism related to Islam.