“To Punish, Deter and Incapacitate”

Lord Bingham once explained that the objectives behind sentencing in serious cases of terrorism differed from those applicable to ordinary criminal trials. Terrorism cases were of such abnormal seriousness that the object of the court will be to punish, deter and incapacitate; rehabilitation is likely to play a minor. Prisons are frequently portrayed as potential incubators for terrorism although such claims are often heavily caveated, as demonstrated by Anthony Whealys discussion of prison radicalisation in Australia: There is anecdotal evidence emerging from Australian prison conditions to suggest that Islamist radicalisation is occurring among prisoners within the gaol population. By the late 1990s, accompanied by the efforts to bring the Troubles in Northern Ireland to an end through the Good Friday Agreement, the Prison Service was acutely aware of the particular difficulties in handling prisoners convicted of involvement in political violence.