New research shows systematic discrimination against Muslims in UK prisons

New data shared exclusively with Middle East Eye has shown evidence of Muslim prisoners being disproportionately targeted by harsh prison regulations in the UK. 

The report by the charity Maslaha revealed that Muslims in prison are more likely to receive severe punishments, and less likely to be considered for jobs and education schemes.

The campaign group suggests the need for an urgent review of the disparities in the punishments and incentive and privilege schemes in prisons in what they have called a “culture of covert discrimination”.

Maslaha, a social justice charity for Muslim communities in the UK, has also raised concerns that policies being brought in under the new Sentencing Act will be applied unevenly in a way that will disadvantage Muslims and other minority ethnic groups.

The Sentencing Act, which was passed in January 2026 but has not yet become law, was introduced to deal with prison overcrowding. 

It involves changes to move towards an “earned progression” model that will allow for the earlier release of prisoners serving a fixed sentence, with exceptions if they have been given extra days for breaking prison rules.

However, Maslaha’s research shows that, as it stands, Muslims receive discrimination that limits their ability to benefit from the changes made to the early release scheme. 

Muslim men are more likely to receive warnings and adjudications than non-Muslims, more likely to be found guilty, and more likely to face the most severe punishments. 

An adjudication is the process of punishing prisoners who have been found guilty of breaking a rule, through removing privileges and imposing up to 42 days of additional time to their sentence. 

Between January 2023 and December 2025, Muslims made up 23 percent of adjudications and punishments, and 29 percent of the total number of additional days given out, despite representing only 18 percent of the general prison population. 

Meanwhile, Muslims receive the worst outcomes from the Incentives and Earned Privileges (IEP) scheme out of all religion or belief groups, representing the highest proportion of prisoners on the low behaviour levels, and the least likely to receive privileges. 

This leaves Muslims less likely to be considered for jobs and education schemes in prison, as well as potentially being left out of early release schemes with the new earned progression model coming in.

A Prison Service spokesperson told MEE: “We are committed to treating all prisoners fairly and equally, regardless of their background, ethnicity or religious beliefs.  

“Prison Service staff are expected to meet high standards of professional and personal conduct. Misconduct of any nature will not be tolerated and failure to comply with these standards can lead to disciplinary action.

“There are many factors influencing adjudication outcomes and it is not possible to draw conclusions from this data in isolation.”

‘Pattern of discrimination’

The report compiled evidence from prison data as well as testimonies from Muslim prisoners, and found that these schemes are “themselves becoming vehicles for more subtle - but material - forms of discrimination and racism to take place”.

One prisoner told the charity that “if you’re Muslim the system will automatically view you more suspiciously. You’re always aware of it.”

Another said that adjudications are routinely given out for things that “can’t be proven” and called the process a “kangaroo court”.

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The report concluded that “patterns of discrimination have continued despite policy commitment and the introduction of mandatory equality measures”.

The latter were introduced after the Young Review in 2014, which also found ethnic minority groups received harsher punishment “even when they had been involved in the same incident” as their white counterparts, while the privileges scheme was “not equally distributed”, with white prisoners being “favoured”.

UK Prison Minister James Timpson warned in 2025 that sexual harassment, racism and bullying have become “normalised” in jails, and announced a plan to overhaul a “toxic culture of cover-up” among senior staff. 

However, these findings suggest that the government has not overcome these challenges, despite over a decade of studies drawing the same conclusion about systematic racial discrimination within prisons. 

Raheel Mohammed, the director of Maslaha, told MEE that “our report highlights worrying long-term trends in the prison estate: where racialised Muslim men face harsher treatment, punishment, and outcomes in prison”.

“The government appears to be failing in its duty under the Equality Act to assess and respond to the equality impacts of new policies,” Mohammed added, highlighting the “risk that Muslims and other racialised prisoners that face negative outcomes and mistreatment will be completely left behind under the new Sentencing Act.”

While the government and prison system has focused their attention on addressing overcrowding concerns, they have not dealt with the underlying issues of sentence inflation being applied disproportionately to ethnic minority groups, he said.

Instead, Mohammed has called on the justice secretary to look at “the real issues in the adult justice system, including the efficacy of current oversight policies” where the data on its impact is largely being ignored.