While much attention has been focused on the threat of radical Islam in U.S. prisons, one expert’s research finds that American prisons are not a likely safe haven for terrorist recruitment.

Dr. Bert Useem, an author and professor of sociology at Purdue University, says his field research, consisting of trips to 27 prisons and interviews of 200 prison officials and 270 prisoners, concludes that “barely a trace” of radicalization can be found.

“Our central finding is that the rate of prisoner radicalization is not just low but failing,” Useem wrote in The Weekly Standard on September 8. He credits increased safety standards and vigilance on the part of prison staff. He also found that inmates were unlikely to tolerate such radicalization, describing the inmate population as “individually disloyal patriots” who violate the law but are still loyal to the country.

Useem also noted that the Muslim-American population in the U.S. is largely middle-class, assimilated, and have positive views of the country. Radicalization inside the prisons, Useem believes, would require the influence of foreign nationals and cultures, which is unlikely to happen in a prison.

The worry over the potential spread of radical Islam in U.S. prisons received increased attention in August 2005 when former inmates who had converted to Islam in prison were stopped from launching a bombing campaign in California.