How Terrorism Links To Mass Incarceration Of Muslims In France

A man walks toward the high-security prison of Fleury-Merogis where Salah Abdeslam, the suspect in the Paris attacks, was bing held outside Paris, Thursday, April 28, 2016.
A man walks toward the high-security prison of Fleury-Merogis where Salah Abdeslam, the suspect in the Paris attacks, was bing held outside Paris, Thursday, April 28, 2016. Thibault Camus/AP
A man walks toward the high-security prison of Fleury-Merogis where Salah Abdeslam, the suspect in the Paris attacks, was bing held outside Paris, Thursday, April 28, 2016.
A man walks toward the high-security prison of Fleury-Merogis where Salah Abdeslam, the suspect in the Paris attacks, was bing held outside Paris, Thursday, April 28, 2016. Thibault Camus/AP

How Terrorism Links To Mass Incarceration Of Muslims In France

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Mass incarceration of people of color is not just a problem in the United States. 

While Muslims make up about eight percent of France’s population, they comprise anywhere from 60-70 percent of the country’s prison population, according to varying research. As France is fixated on security after a series of major terrorist attacks - from the January 2015 Charlie Hebdo shootings in Paris to last week’s truck attack in Nice, a lot can be learned from efforts by France to prevent radicalization in its prison system. 

We talk with Christopher de Bellaigue, an investigative journalist, author and blogger. His most recent investigative report in the Guardian is titled, “Are French prisons ‘finishing schools’ for terrorism?” And it was done in partnership with the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting.