Terrorist-only prison units dropped in favour of isolated, high security cells in France
DANGEROUS extremists will be locked up in single cells and will no longer be allowed to speak with other radicalised prisoners in France.
Dangerous radicalist extremists will be locked up and isolated from eachother
French justice minister Jean-Jacques Urvoas announced a series of measures to tackle extremism in prisons which he described as a "worrying trend".
In January 2015, weeks after 17 people were killed in a series of terror attacks in Paris, the French government vowed to act on the "major issue" of radicalisation in prisons.
At the time, the government announced that Islamic extremists would regrouped and locked up in specialist isolation units; but kept away from the rest of the prisoner population in a bid to prevent jails from being turned into a breeding ground for radicalism.
The French government is taking steps to tackle the problem of radical Islam in prisons
But less than two years into the so-called 'experiment,' the French government has decided to get rid of its five terrorist-only prison wings..
They realised that regrouping extremists and keeping them in close proximity to one another had only made matters worse, and that the terrorists had "joined forces".
Mr Urvoas said: "Regrouping convicted terrorists has not helped. From now on, they will be separated and sent to regular prisons, but kept under close surveillance."
France targets radical Islam in prisons
Isolated cells stop the spread of radical ideologies among inmates
The justice minister admitted that the specialist isolation units had stopped radical Islamists from being able to proselytise to other inmates; but that the Islamists were harder to tame because they were backed and protected by their terrorist cell mates.
From now on, high risk convicted radical Islamists - there are currently 349 in France, including 31 women and 18 minors - will be kept apart and locked up in isolated, high security cells, and will have little to no contact with other inmates.
The government will build these cells to accommodate terrorists fleeing from Mosul
The government also announced that it would build "hundreds of isolated cells" in 2017 in order to deal with the fresh influx of jihadists on their way back to France from ISIS-held territory after being forced to flee the terror group's de facto capital, Mosul, in Iraq.
Rolling out the new anti-radicalisation security measures will cost a total of €8058million (£52m) in 2017, which is €8018m (£16m) more than in 2016, and €8041m (£36m) more than in 2015.