A report we regularly hear after a terrorist attack by Islamic extremists is, “terrorist X was believed to have been radicalised in prison”. One would have to be blind not to recognise that something is going wrong in our prisons.
Before moving to my current parish I spent 6 years as the Coordinating Chaplain at a prison in Yorkshire. It's fairly unusual for a Catholic to hold this position: normally the role is performed by Anglicans or (increasingly) Muslims. My experience over those six years suggested that we are indeed getting it wrong in our prisons - though recognising the problem is often easier than offering a solution.
