I’m coming to this a bit late, but there has been some reporting and blog commentary recently about an apparently high level of conversions to Islam in UK jails. There’s nothing new about this. “Converting” to Islam has always been a scam for old lags – a quarter of a century ago, because prison kitchens didn’t handle Halal meat, it meant takeaway curries every night.
I said “old lags” because sceptical prison officers didn’t let people “convert” – prisoners had to have the experience to claim to be a Muslim on arrival. I’d bet the main difference now is that prisoners can “convert” at a later stage of their incarceration and get the benefits.
More of a problem seems to be the rise in gang culture in jails, but perhaps that’s just a reflection of the broader criminal social changes of the past couple of decades. Gangs are more common, period.
