Minnesota Federal Court Seeks to ‘Deradicalize’ Terrorist Recruits

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — A federal court in Minnesota has created a program to assess the risks posed by terrorism defendants and devise a plan to deradicalize them so they don't engage in similar activities again.

U.S. District Judge Michael Davis says the program is the first of its kind in the country. It has two parts.

First, Daniel Koehler, director of the German Institute on Radicalization and De-radicalization Studies, will evaluate the risks of four men who have pleaded guilty to conspiring to support the Islamic State group. Davis will use that information as he determines their sentences.

Koehler will offer recommendations for deradicalizing each defendant and train probation officials, who will be responsible for supervising them.

Davis says the program can apply to other terrorism defendants who are getting out of prison.