A top UK prison official on Monday warned of a terror threat emerging from jails, saying extremists are attempting to recruit inmates as potential terrorists. Nick Hardwick, who will retire as Chief Inspector of Prisons in the New Year, stressed that officers should not be deterred from tackling gang-related activity in jails. “There are undoubtedly a small number of very dangerous men motivated by a religion or ideology who are trying to recruit other people so they will go on to commit offences linked to that ideology or religion,” he said. “You do have Muslim gangs but the point about it is, it is a gang. That is more important than it is Muslim. There might be pressure to join up, but how real that conversion is, is the big question,” Hardwick said. His comments come after former head of counter-terrorism at Scotland Yard Peter Clarke was appointed to succeed him as chief inspector.