Muslim prisoners in the UK are more likely to be subjected to excessive force by prison staff.
Data provided by Maslaha, a UK-based organisation which serves to highlight inequalities and racism against Muslim communities, shows that Muslim prisoners were met with higher levels of violence.
These included being confronted with batons, forced to wear rigid bar handcuffs, being sprayed with pepper spray or purposely held in a painful position.
The NGO examined data from 2023 – the last full year available – from nine prisons across the country holding high populations of Muslim inmates, the UK's Guardian newspaper said.
Maslaha investigated acts of violence such as thumb and wrist flexion, as well as the "mandibular angle" – which entails putting pressure on a nerve below the ear. Such actions can lead to long-term damage.
It found that in Belmarsh, a prison in south-east London where Muslim prisoners made up 23 percent of the inmate population, Muslim men were at the receiving end of 43 percent of incidents involving rigid bar handcuffs, as well as 63 percent of incidents related to other pain-inducing techniques.
At HMP Woodhill in Milton Keynes, where Muslims constituted 37 percent of those behind bars, they were subjected to 49 percent of recorded use of rigid bar handcuffs, 63 percent of baton-related incidents and 64 percent of pain-inducing cases.
Muslim prisoners make up 42 percent of the inmates at HMP/YOI Feltham B in west London. However, data showed that Muslims were subjected to 53 percent of rigid bar handcuffs uses, as well as 57 percent of incidents where batons were drawn.
Sixty-four percent of the prisoners were also subjected to pain-inducing techniques.
Similar data was recorded at HMP Isis in Thamesmead, south-east London and HMP Whitemoor in Cambridgeshire.
The NGO said the data highlights the inadequate levels of scrutiny in the country over what it described as "state-sponsored violence in prisons".
“The use of force in prisons is meant to be strictly regulated, monitored and 'misuse' disciplined. Yet we know from other cases that prison guidelines are not always followed, with often horrifying and traumatic consequences," Maslaha said in their report.
The organisation also said that Muslim prisoners are also subjected to daily humiliations, such as being denied daily showers, and that such inmates feel obliged to accept their conditions.
Islamophobic insults are also commonplace, as well as incidents such as being deliberately served pork for Iftar during Ramadan.Access to prayer is also withheld deliberately, inmates told Maslaha.
"This briefing alongside our previous research confirms a pattern: that as the Muslim prison population increases (now 18 percent), so will the use of punitive measures against them."
Mark Fairhurst, the national chair of the Prison Officers’ Association, said in response to the data: "Staff only use force at the last resort when necessary and when it is used, it is always proportionate and reasonable," as cited by The Guardian.
There were around 15,594 Muslim prisoners in England and Wales in September last year, according to data from the Minister of Justice, accounting for 18 percent of all inmates despite Muslims only constituting 6,5 percent of the UK's population.
In eight out of nine prisons with high Muslim populations, Muslim men are more frequently targeted with batons, made to wear rigid bar handcuffs, or are held in painful positions, according to data obtained by freedom of information requests.
Maslaha, a social justice charity, requested the information from the nine prisons, The Guardian reported.
It comes amid calls for a crackdown on Muslim gangs in British prisons. The data received by Maslaha covers 2023, the latest full year available.
In London’s Belmarsh prison, which often holds terrorist suspects, Muslim prisoners made up 32 percent of the population in 2023.
However, that year, Muslim men in Belmarsh were subjected to 43 percent of incidents involving the use of rigid bar handcuffs and 61 percent of instances relating to pain-inducing techniques.
Similar disparities were recorded in Cambridgeshire’s HMP Whitemoor, London’s HMP Isis and HMP/YOI Feltham B, as well as HMP Woodhill in Milton Keynes.
Just one of the nine prisons included in the data, HMP The Mount, recorded a use of force against Muslim prisoners lower than for the overall population.
Maslaha’s director, Raheel Mohammed, said that the disparities “lay bare the realities of life” for Muslims in British prisons.
He added that Muslims were “being targeted by the use of force, subjected to dangerous, pain-inducing techniques and singled out for deliberately humiliating treatment.”
Separate data from the Ministry of Justice, for September last year, showed that there were 15,594 Muslim prisoners in England and Wales. They accounted for 18 percent of all prison inmates.
In response to the statistics concerning the use of force, Mark Fairhurst, the national chair of the Prison Officers’ Association, said: “Staff only use force at the last resort when necessary and when it is used, it is always proportionate and reasonable.”
Last year, HM Prison & Probation Service launched a national initiative to tackle racial disproportionality in the use of force.
It included measuring disparities in treatment between prisoners of different ethnic groups and religions.
A Prison Service spokesperson said: “We recognize the use of force in prisons needs greater supervision and have already introduced mechanisms to reduce the disparities in how it is used.
“Our new race disparity unit will help tackle racial discrimination further.”
