Revitalization of Deradicalization Programs in Prisons

The radicalization phenomenon in the prison is turned out to be a serious problem and a new type of challenge in P/CVE. The imprisoned terrorist convicts, instead of quitting the terrorism circle, are even getting more radical inside the prison thus also become a threat for other non-terrorism prisoners. Even more ironic, the correctional facilities’ staffs and chaplains are holding the same risk to radicalization. The process of radicalization what happened in prison is relatively instant since many of the prisoners have a previous criminal record. Hence, being terrorists, or extremist to some point, are not a huge leap too far.

The phenomenon is specially the case in Indonesia. The prison and its mediocre deradicalization program (either run by the government or non-governmental organization) does not seem to be capable of properly performing its functions: making terrorist convicts out of the terrorism circle through existing rehabilitation programs. In fact, instead of getting out of the radical way, the terrorist convicts become more radical because the handling mechanism functioned of terrorist convicts is less meticulous. 

CONVEY project in cooperation with Division for Applied Social Psychology Research (DASPR – Daya Makara) University of Indonesia has conducted a research assessment on several deradicalization programs existed inside prisons or correctional institutions, then support for evidence-based best practice interventions. All the findings are formulated as an evidence-based reference for strategic policy recommendations in revitalizing deradicalization programs in the prison in accordance to counter violent extremism. The policy brief of this assessment can be accessed here for written in Bahasa, or the English version here.