Robin Simcox

Pathways out of extremism are very rarely instantaneous. It can take years for former extremists to fully disengage from this ideology. Expecting someone who was fighting alongside ISIS one day to be a legitimate ally in the fight against Islamist extremism the day after is an unrealistic expectation, the increasingly popular idea that we should not jail terrorists because that would only make them even more radical shows how utterly backwards this entire debate can become. Yes, prison radicalization does exist. However, the answer is to deal with the conditions that create prison radicalization – an inability to isolate charismatic Islamist recruiters, for example – not stop sending those who broke the law to prison.