AMERICA'S SECRET TERROR INCUBATORS
by
Dortell Williams
(approx. 500 words non-fiction)

Imagine... sitting beside a tall, disheveled, long-haired and bespectacled man on a plane - who has a bomb in his shoe! Prosecutors say Richard Reid, also known as The Shoe Bomber, was not only sporting such improvised exploding kicks, but he was also attempting to ignite them when he was arrested in 2001. His failed attempt to kill hundreds of other, by making as animated bomb of himself, earned his an eternal sentence of life without the possibility of parole in prison; the same place - only in Britain - where he allegedly was converted to such radicalism.

Security experts now fear that US prisons are potential perspectives like those convicted terrorist Reid adopted.
In spite of the fact that five years have passed since Reid's arrest, and there has only been one alleged incident of attempted in - custody recruiting (where a California prisoner allegedly tried to convert others to a radical and murderous line of thinking), the possibilities are endless.

Prisons have long been concrete and steel incubators for radical and subversive thought, fueled and nourished by rampant idleness, acute boredom and neglect in our nation's prisons.
California, which has virtually no rehabilitation or treatment programs for the majority of its prisoners, is a good example of bad policy. For three decades, California prisons have birthed or cultivated some of the most notorious gangs in US history - and then spread (or deported) them to other states and countries.

Now, in the menacing face of terrorism, experts propose initiating preventive measures to impede the odorous waft of potential radicalism in US prisons across the board.
Meanwhile, California incarcerates more people then any other state, many for non-violent offenses; needlessly exposing its non-violent citizens to such latent radicalism. California has already failed us dismally with its unbridled gang problem. Kids are killing kids in unprecedented numbers, spawned by gang violence. The failure lies in the state's backward and failed attempt to arrest its way out of the growing crisis, instead of focusing on prevention programs.

Likewise, the US as a whole incarcerates more people than any other modern nation, many, also for non-violent offenses. If California is a prelude (or omen) to the future of US prison policy, then without real and meaningful education, drug treatment, job training, pre-release and other reforming programs, this country is in for an extended and punctuated bloody fight like never seen before.

The US government and its individual states must develop programs for those who've made mistakes. There are scores of prisoners who desperately want to change their lives, but don't know how. These prisoners are offered little or no opportunity, or guidance from penal institutions although these facilities have almost complete control over their in-custody lives. If security experts really want to prevent radicalism in US prisons then they must push to proactively change the hearts and minds of its prisoners right here at home - before the radicals do.

Sources:
Alexandra Marks, " Islamic Radicals in Prison: How many?" Christian Science Monitor, September 20, 2006: p.3