CEP Webinar "Can Convicted Terrorists Be Rehabilitated?"

Wednesday, Jun 03, 2020

Many terrorist offenders imprisoned in the European Union and the United States will be released in the coming years. The significant increase in convictions of Foreign Terrorist Fighters since 2014 has created a larger than ever terrorism-related prison population in the United States as well as in several European states. Therefore, governments, prison authorities, as well as rehabilitation professionals are confronted with growing challenges to ensure that the reintegration of released terrorist offenders is successful and that the recidivism rate stabilizes at acceptable levels.

There are a variety of programs in place in various countries that aim to help these individuals deradicalize and reintegrate into society. What programs seem to be working? Can good practices be transferred? 

Since 2018, the Counter Extremism Project (CEP) has established a particular workstream and expertise focused on this subject and commissioned a range of expert reports to discuss these looming challenges.

CEP was honored to host this webinar in cooperation with the Radicalization Awareness Network (RAN) of the European Commission. Four globally renowned experts in the field of radicalization and rehabilitation shared their expertise:

Mitchell D. Silber, former Director of Intelligence Analysis at the New York City Police Department (NYPD), Senior Advisor to CEP, and co-author of the CEP report “When Terrorists Come Home”.

Jesse Morton, former recruiter for al-Qaeda, founder of the counter-radicalization non-profit organization Parallel Networks, and co-author of the CEP report “When Terrorists Come Home”.

Maarten van de Donk, Senior Advisor of the RAN, supporting the rehabilitation working group and involved in their manual on terrorist offenders rehabilitation.  

Dr. Robert Pelzer, Senior Researcher at the Technical University Berlin and co-author of the study commissioned by CEP on Islamist terrorist rehabilitation programs in Germany.

The event was moderated by Alexander Ritzmann, CEP Senior Advisor and lead of the P/CVE files of CEP Germany.

Daily Dose

Extremists: Their Words. Their Actions.

Fact:

On October 7, 2023, Hamas invaded southern Israel where, in the space of eight hours, hundreds of armed terrorists perpetrated mass crimes of brutality, rape, and torture against men, women and children. In the biggest attack on Jewish life in a single day since the Holocaust, 1,200 were killed, and 251 were taken hostage into Gaza—where 101 remain. One year on, antisemitic incidents have increased by record numbers. 

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