November 3, 2008 -- The Algerian government is launching a new project to combat the growing phenomenon of terrorist recruiting in the nation's prisons and to improve the rate of successful rehabilitation of prisoners. The new plan, devised by the ministries of justice and religious affairs, will provide skills training and religious education to inmates, preparing them for re-integration into society.

Representatives of the two ministries assembled on October 27th for a two-day meeting to discuss the growing problem of terrorist recruitment in prisons and the challenges of rehabilitation and reintegration.

Participants in the meeting agreed to appoint imams and religious guides to educate prisoners about the dangers of "takfirist" and "jihadist" ideologies, and to embrace the Muslim value of tolerance.

"There is nothing better or more effective than a lesson built upon the Qur'an and Sharia to guide the prisoners and to fix what's in their souls," said Mokhtar Felyoune, Director of the Prison and Rehabilitation Service.

To kick off the programme, said Felyoune, imams and morchidates have been assigned to 127 Algerian prisons, and will begin their training immediately. The project conforms to international legal precedents, he added, that allow for religious training in prison education programmes, in addition to inmates' rights of religious practice.

Mohamed Aissa, Religious Guidance Director with the Ministry of Religious Affairs, said terrorist groups prey on the desperation of young people with limited education, both academic and religious, to instil violent jihadist ideas in them.

Aissa said many prison recruits are sufficiently convinced by these ideas to go fight in conflicts well beyond their borders, in Iraq, Somalia and Lebanon.

Security experts are generally in consensus with the ministries of justice and religious affairs on the phenomenon of prison terrorist recruiting. Analyst Salima Tlemçani said the rise in prison recruiting is due to the growing number of convicted terrorists from cells providing logistical support to terrorist networks.

Tlemçani said she believes there is a distinction to be made between these terrorists, who were captured and tried for their wrongdoing, and those who surrendered willingly under the government's amnesty programme. The former group generally espouses a violently radical ideology, Tlemçani said; one that compels them to attempt to convert fellow prisoners. For those who gave up the fight, however, the focus during and after imprisonment seems to be re-integration into society.

Many terrorists belonging to the unrepentant group return to violence upon their release, often accepted as "leaders" into the ranks of al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb for having served time in prison for their terrorist activities, she said.

The promotion of jihadist thinking is aided by prison overcrowding, Tlemçani added, because it provides an open forum for terrorists to discuss their ideas with the general prison population.