French prisons have come under the spotlight in the past two months, as a key recruiting ground for Islamist extremists. January’s attacks in Paris by brothers Cherif and Said Kouachi and Ahmedy Coulibaly, in which 17 people were killed, led to fresh questions about the links they made in prison.
Now the French government is pushing forward with a series of measures designed to counter radicalism in the country’s jails, where more than half of inmates are estimated to be Muslim. But as the BBC’s Paris correspondent Lucy Williamson reports, the problem is part of a much wider debate about the relationship between Islam and the French state.
Note: This BBC interview can be heard in the Here & Now podcast or with the WBUR app.
Guest
- Lucy Williamson, Paris correspondent for BBC News. She tweets @LucyWilliamson.
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