Prison governors will be told to remove Muslims from communal prayer in jails if they are deemed to be spreading ‘anti-British’ values.
The proposals will also see Muslim chaplains who offer guidance to a growing number of Islamic prisoners undergoing “tightened vetting” before being allowed near inmates.
The new measures aimed at clamping down on the spread of extremism come as the number of Muslims in British prisons has soared over the last ten years.
It was also confirmed that governors will seek to isolate extremists acting as “self-styled emirs” to prevent them radicalising others.
The counter-extremism scheme comes after Anjem Choudary, one of Britain’s most prominent Islamist clerics, was convicted of crimes that could see him face years in jail.
New Justice Secretary Liz Truss said the measures were needed in order to stop the “spread of this poisonous ideology behind bars”, but critics questioned whether they were appropriate.
Official figures show there are now more than 12,600 Muslims in prison in England and Wales, while the figure was just 8,200 a decade earlier.