One of greatest threats to the United States today is terrorism. Currently, terrorist organizations are seeking to recruit human sources within the United States. “The danger to America’s security is, therefore, not the number of adherents to Islam in prison, but in the potential for small groups of true believers to instigate terrorist acts, either by other prisoners once they are released, or by existing cells in the community”(Hamm, 2007). One major concern is that U.S. correctional institutions may become a source for such recruitment. This type of recruitment is highly likely.
“Demographic studies from the 1960s and 1970s constructed a profile of the typical terroristic as a well-educated single male in his mid-twenties from a middle-class back- ground”(Victoroff, 2002). Some of the most dangerous terrorists are serving their sentences in U.S. correctional institutions. They are known as kingpins. These kingpins reach out to other prisoners and convert them into carrying out terrorist acts once they are released. “In the United States, the Bureau of Prisons
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are viewed to be the starting grounds for terrorist recruitment. “Disciplined and belonging to networks that are internally cohesive, they are free to recruit and train inmates they believe to be suited for work within a terrorist organization, and they are able to draw from a constantly regenerating pool of candidates”(Cuthbertson, 2004). If someone wants to be a part of a terrorist group, they just have to prove themselves to the kingpin that they are worthy of radicalization. What makes the recruitment process successful in the prisons is that they are not being monitored. If the guards do not know the certain language that the inmates are talking in, then the inmates are in full control and can carry on terrorist plans. “They possess little knowledge of Islamic cultures and languages, and they lack personnel with the skills needed to properly monitor prison