F-type Prisons (Turkey)
Encyclopedia
F-Type-Prisons or in its official title F-type High Security Closed Institutions for the Execution of Sentences (F tipi cezaevi / F Tipi Yüksek Güvenlikli Kapalı Ceza İnfaz Kurumu) are called high-security prisons
according to the Turkish Law 5275 on the Execution of Sentences
.
The F-type prisons were erected to accommodate imprisoned members of armed organizations. People convicted of drug offences
or organized crime
s are also placed in these prisons, as well as those sentenced to aggravated life imprisonment
. Aggravated life imprisonment (ağırlaştırılmış müebbet hapis cezası) replaced the death penalty
that was abolished in 2002 and according to Article 47 of the Turkish Penal Code (TPC) should in principle last until the death of the convicted person.
were held in wards (dormitories
) with 50 or more prisoners. In April 1991, the Turkish parliament enacted the Anti-Terror-Law (ATL), which required that "The sentences of those convicted under the provisions of this law will be served in special penal institutions built on a system of cells constructed for one or three people ... Convicted prisoners will not be permitted contact or communication with other convicted prisoners."
This law was revised in Article 1 of Law 4666 of 1 May 2001. On 29 June 2006 Article 16 of the Anti-Terror-Law was cancelled, since other provisions had been enacted.
, and replacing wards with cells. The prison was reopened in February 1991. This prison did not carry the title of Type F, but was called a "special type prison". Prisoners criticized the cell system as [being like a] "coffin
" (tabutluk). In November 1991, 206 political prisoners were transferred to Eskişehir. Justice Minister Seyfi Oktay and the State Minister responsible for Human Rights, Mehmet Kahraman visited the prison on November 22nd, 1991, accompanied by representatives of the Human Rights Association (HRA)
, the Human Rights Foundation of Turkey (HRFT) and the Turkish Medical Association (TTB) and listened to allegations of torture
and ill-treatment. Two days later the Council of Ministers decided to close the prison again. In October 1995, the prison was reopened. The attempt of 1996 to transfer all prisoners on trial in Istanbul under the Anti-Terror-Law to Eskişehir failed, after 12 prisoners had died during a hunger strike
declared to be a fast to death.
On invitation of the Turkish Government the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT) visited the prison in Eskişehir in August 1996. It had little to criticize and found the prisoners' term of "coffin cells" far from reality.
, inmates of the prisons in Bayrampaşa
, Bartın
, Çankırı
, Çanakkale
, Aydın
, Bursa, Uşak
, Malatya
, Niğde
, Buca
, Ankara
Central Closed Prison, Konya
-Ermenek
, Nevşehir
, Gebze
and Ceyhan
started a hunger strike on October 26th, 2000. Until November 19th, 2000, a total of 816 prisoner in 18 prisons had joined the hunger strike and declared that they would turn their action into a "death fast".
The compromise Justice Minister Hikmet Sami Türk offered on 9 December 2000 (no immediate transfers to F-type prison and a loosening of Article 16 in Law 3713) was not sufficient for the prisoners, so negotiations of well known personalities including Orhan Pamuk
, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature (not at the time though) failed. On 19 December 2000 Turkish security forces stormed 20 prisons in an action named "Operation Return to Life". 30 prisoners and two soldiers were killed.
The transfers to the F-type prisons started immediately after the operation on the prisons. On 21 December 2000 the Ministry of Justice announced that 524 prisoners had been transferred to the F-type prisons in Edirne
, Kocaeli
and Sincan
. But this was not the end of the prisoners' actions. On 3 January 2001, the Justice Minister announced that 1118 inmates and detainees from 41 prisons were on indefinite hunger strikes, while 395 were on death fasts.
, Izmir
and Ankara
Bar Association suggested a solution called "three doors, three locks" (üç kapı, üç kılıt). This would have enabled nine prisoners (three each in three rooms) to get together during the day. While the prisoners announced that they would stop their action, if the proposal was accepted the Justice Minister Hikmet Sami Türk declared the proposal unacceptable, and made the counter offer that 10 prisoners could come together for 5 hours a week.
In May 2002 Hüsnü Öndül, chair of the HRA called on the Justice Minister to enter an intensified dialogue and appealed to the prisoners to stop the senseless deaths. On 28 May prisoners of almost all groups involved in the hunger strike action ended the death fast. Only the DHKP-C continued the fast.
, at the time chairing the Grand National Assembly of Turkey
, met with relatives of Aşçı and representatives of NGOs. He said that the house representing the nation could not stay insensitive on a subject in which a lawyer insisted risking his life and indicated that the Ministry of Justice and the government would act.
Behiç Aşçı and two prisoners continuing the action declared that they would disrupt their action, after they had read Decree 45/1 of the Ministry of Justice dated 22 January 2007. This decree, which included multiple provisions, allowed that 10 prisoners in the F-type prisons may come together for 10 hours per week (previously it had been five hours per week).
In and outside prison a total of 122 people died in connection with actions against isolation in F-type prisons. Many more were suffering from serious diseases such as the Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome
. In the Annual Report 2006 the HRFT presented the following figures on deaths during the fasten to death action:
One group protested by setting themselves on fire happened in Germany. There are another 12 victims of suicidal attacks said to have been conducted as a protest against the F-type prisons.
The Human Rights Foundation of Turkey treated 593 former prisoners suffering from the Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome
. They had either been pardoned by State President Ahmet Necdet Sezer
according to Article 104 of the Constitution
or temporarily been released according to Article 399 of the Turkish Code of Criminal Procedure
(Law 1402).
(close to Ankara):
In the same report the CPT drew special attention to people sentenced to aggravated life imprisonment
, who according to Article 25 of Law 5275 (on the execution of sentences) have to be held in individual cells. The report stated inter alias:
In December 2007, and January 2008, the Association of Contemporary Jurist (Çağdaş Hukukçular Derneği = ÇHD) conducted research on the implementation of Decree 45/1. 25 lawyers went to six prisons and spoke with 120 prisoners. Afterwards they stated that the possibility of 10 hours of conversation per week in groups of 10 prisoners was not observed in the F-type prisons in Tekirdağ
(2), Kocaeli
(1) and Bolu
. In Tekirdağ F-type Prison (1) this right had been cancelled three months ago. In Kandıra
F-type Prison (2) the time was limited to 2.5 hours, just like in Kocaeli F-type Prison (2) and Edirne
, where this right had been granted a month ago.
The Human Rights Association (HRA)
and the Human Rights Foundation of Turkey (HRFT), too, have criticized the isolation in F-type prisons. Details can be found in the HRA report on prisons in the Marmara region or the annual report 2007 (reports in Turkish). Since the English pages of the HRFT are under construction (as of August 2009,) it is possible to search the website of the Democratic Turkey Forum (DTF, the German solidarity group of the HRFT), where a backup system for reports exists since 2008.
Amnesty International
(AI) has issued several reports raising concern on isolation
and atrocities in F-type prisons. In the Memorandum to the Turkish Government in January 2008, the chapter on F-type prisons stated inter alias:
In the document AI's concerns in Europe and Central Asia (July-December 2006) the organization stated: Six years on from the opening of the F-type prisons, serious complaints about the regime in these prisons continued... Prisoners, their lawyers and human rights groups continued to raise concerns about harsh and arbitrary disciplinary punishments meted out to prisoners in F-type prisons and reported treatment of prisoners which, in some cases, AI would consider as amounting to term cruel, inhuman and degrading.
The New York based organization Human Rights Watch
(HRW) has issued many reports related to F-type prisons, before and after they were operated. On April 5th, 2001 the report Small Group Isolation in F-type Prisons and the Violent Transfers of Prisoners to Sincan, Kandira, and Edirne Prisons was published. It discussed the background of the transfers of hunger strikers to F-type prisons and repeated earlier concerns such as Many prisoners also believe that they face a greater risk of ill-treatment by prison staff if they are transferred to a cell-based system, where there is only limited communication with other prisoners or with the outside world. One year before, on May 24th, 2000, HRW had published the report Small Group Isolation in Turkish Prisons: An Avoidable Disaster. The organization expressed two primary concerns: (1) to the extent the cell-based system is accompanied by an isolation regime that provides prisoners with no access to educational or recreational activities or other sources of mental stimulation, the system may itself amount to ill-treatment, and (2) a regime of isolation that severely limits access to other inmates as well as the outside world may also increase the risk of ill-treatment of prisoners by prison staff.
On 19 July 2007 Kırıkkale
F-type Prison was opened as the 13th F-type prison. The prison on the island İmralı
where Abdullah Öcalan
, leader of the Kurdish Workers' Party
PKK is the only inmate is not exactly an F-type prison (only 9 instead of 368 inmates), but also a high security prison. Answering a parliamentarian request Justice Minister Sadullah Ergin stated in August 2009 that the reconstruction of the prison to a closed high security institution for the execution of sentences had been finished. He added that another eight prisoners would be taken there, but was unable to say who the prisoners would be.
Supermax
Supermax is the name used to describe "control-unit" prisons, or units within prisons, which represent the most secure levels of custody in the prison systems of certain countries...
according to the Turkish Law 5275 on the Execution of Sentences
Sentence (law)
In law, a sentence forms the final explicit act of a judge-ruled process, and also the symbolic principal act connected to his function. The sentence can generally involve a decree of imprisonment, a fine and/or other punishments against a defendant convicted of a crime...
.
The F-type prisons were erected to accommodate imprisoned members of armed organizations. People convicted of drug offences
Prohibition (drugs)
The prohibition of drugs through sumptuary legislation or religious law is a common means of attempting to prevent drug use. Prohibition of drugs has existed at various levels of government or other authority from the Middle Ages to the present....
or organized crime
Organized crime
Organized crime or criminal organizations are transnational, national, or local groupings of highly centralized enterprises run by criminals for the purpose of engaging in illegal activity, most commonly for monetary profit. Some criminal organizations, such as terrorist organizations, are...
s are also placed in these prisons, as well as those sentenced to aggravated life imprisonment
Life imprisonment
Life imprisonment is a sentence of imprisonment for a serious crime under which the convicted person is to remain in jail for the rest of his or her life...
. Aggravated life imprisonment (ağırlaştırılmış müebbet hapis cezası) replaced the death penalty
Capital punishment
Capital punishment, the death penalty, or execution is the sentence of death upon a person by the state as a punishment for an offence. Crimes that can result in a death penalty are known as capital crimes or capital offences. The term capital originates from the Latin capitalis, literally...
that was abolished in 2002 and according to Article 47 of the Turkish Penal Code (TPC) should in principle last until the death of the convicted person.
History
Before F-type prisons were built, prisoners in TurkeyTurkey
Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...
were held in wards (dormitories
Dormitory
A dormitory, often shortened to dorm, in the United States is a residence hall consisting of sleeping quarters or entire buildings primarily providing sleeping and residential quarters for large numbers of people, often boarding school, college or university students...
) with 50 or more prisoners. In April 1991, the Turkish parliament enacted the Anti-Terror-Law (ATL), which required that "The sentences of those convicted under the provisions of this law will be served in special penal institutions built on a system of cells constructed for one or three people ... Convicted prisoners will not be permitted contact or communication with other convicted prisoners."
This law was revised in Article 1 of Law 4666 of 1 May 2001. On 29 June 2006 Article 16 of the Anti-Terror-Law was cancelled, since other provisions had been enacted.
"Pilot-Project" Eskişehir
The first high security prison was created by remodeling an existing prison that was built in 1987 in EskişehirEskisehir
Eskişehir is a city in northwestern Turkey and the capital of the Eskişehir Province. According to the 2009 census, the population of the city is 631,905. The city is located on the banks of the Porsuk River, 792 m above sea level, where it overlooks the fertile Phrygian Valley. In the nearby...
, and replacing wards with cells. The prison was reopened in February 1991. This prison did not carry the title of Type F, but was called a "special type prison". Prisoners criticized the cell system as [being like a] "coffin
Coffin
A coffin is a funerary box used in the display and containment of dead people – either for burial or cremation.Contemporary North American English makes a distinction between "coffin", which is generally understood to denote a funerary box having six sides in plan view, and "casket", which...
" (tabutluk). In November 1991, 206 political prisoners were transferred to Eskişehir. Justice Minister Seyfi Oktay and the State Minister responsible for Human Rights, Mehmet Kahraman visited the prison on November 22nd, 1991, accompanied by representatives of the Human Rights Association (HRA)
Human Rights Association (Turkey)
The Human Rights Association is an NGO for advancing Human rights in Turkey, founded in 1986 and headquartered in Ankara.- History :...
, the Human Rights Foundation of Turkey (HRFT) and the Turkish Medical Association (TTB) and listened to allegations of torture
Torture
Torture is the act of inflicting severe pain as a means of punishment, revenge, forcing information or a confession, or simply as an act of cruelty. Throughout history, torture has often been used as a method of political re-education, interrogation, punishment, and coercion...
and ill-treatment. Two days later the Council of Ministers decided to close the prison again. In October 1995, the prison was reopened. The attempt of 1996 to transfer all prisoners on trial in Istanbul under the Anti-Terror-Law to Eskişehir failed, after 12 prisoners had died during a hunger strike
Hunger strike
A hunger strike is a method of non-violent resistance or pressure in which participants fast as an act of political protest, or to provoke feelings of guilt in others, usually with the objective to achieve a specific goal, such as a policy change. Most hunger strikers will take liquids but not...
declared to be a fast to death.
On invitation of the Turkish Government the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT) visited the prison in Eskişehir in August 1996. It had little to criticize and found the prisoners' term of "coffin cells" far from reality.
The incidents in 2000
In mid-2000, the discussion on F-type prisons got harsher. The then Justice Minister Hikmet Sami Türk was determined to shift towards the "cell system". Reacting against the plans to be transferred to the new prison, where they presumably would be held in isolationSolitary confinement
Solitary confinement is a special form of imprisonment in which a prisoner is isolated from any human contact, though often with the exception of members of prison staff. It is sometimes employed as a form of punishment beyond incarceration for a prisoner, and has been cited as an additional...
, inmates of the prisons in Bayrampaşa
Bayrampasa
Bayrampaşa is a suburban district of Istanbul, Turkey on the European side of the city. The district comprises both working class residential and industrial areas. Population is 240,000 , and the district covers an area of . The mayor is Atila Aydıner .The people of Bayrampaşa are mainly Bosniaks...
, Bartın
Bartin
-Culture:The city hosts strawberry festivals in spring. The city also has beaches of good quality.-External links:* *...
, Çankırı
Çankırı
-Agriculture:Various produce like wheat, corn, beans, apple etc. are grown in the farms, and fields that are rich of water.-Industry:Most of the industry is located near the city center and Korgun. Other towns that are in the industrial map of the city are Şabanözü, Çerkeş, Ilgaz, Kurşunlu, and...
, Çanakkale
Çanakkale
Çanakkale is a town and seaport in Turkey, in Çanakkale Province, on the southern coast of the Dardanelles at their narrowest point. The population of the town is 106,116 . The mayor is Ülgür Gökhan ....
, Aydın
Aydin
Aydın is a city in and the seat of Aydın Province in Turkey's Aegean Region. The city is located at the heart of the lower valley of Büyük Menderes River at a commanding position for the region extending from the uplands of the valley down to the seacoast...
, Bursa, Uşak
Usak
Uşak is a city in the interior part of the Aegean Region of Turkey. The city has a population of 180,414 and is the capital of Uşak Province. The mayor is Ali Erdoğan ....
, Malatya
Malatya
Malatya ) is a city in southeastern Turkey and the capital of its eponymous province.-Overview:The city site has been occupied for thousands of years. The Assyrians called the city Meliddu. Following Roman expansion into the east, the city was renamed in Latin as Melitene...
, Niğde
Nigde
Niğde is a small city and the capital of Niğde Province in the Central Anatolia region of Turkey. The population is 109,724 per the 2010 statistics...
, Buca
Buca
Buca is a district of İzmir Province of Turkey. It is one of the main districts of İzmir Metropolitan Municipality.Buca was one of the preferred settlement areas of İzmir's community of Levantines...
, Ankara
Ankara
Ankara is the capital of Turkey and the country's second largest city after Istanbul. The city has a mean elevation of , and as of 2010 the metropolitan area in the entire Ankara Province had a population of 4.4 million....
Central Closed Prison, Konya
Konya
Konya is a city in the Central Anatolia Region of Turkey. The metropolitan area in the entire Konya Province had a population of 1,036,027 as of 2010, making the city seventh most populous in Turkey.-Etymology:...
-Ermenek
Ermenek
Ermenek is a town and district of Karaman Province in the Central Anatolia region of Turkey. According to 2000 census, population of the district is 42,643 of which 15,509 live in the town of Ermenek.-Name:...
, Nevşehir
Nevsehir
Nevşehir, formerly Muşkara, , is a city and the capital district of Nevşehir Province in the Central Anatolia Region of Turkey. According to the 2010 census, population of the district is 117,890 of which 85,634 631 live in the city of Nevşehir...
, Gebze
Gebze
Gebze is an industrial city in Kocaeli Province, Turkey. Situated 30 miles east of Istanbul on the northern shore of the Sea of Marmara, it is the largest district of Kocaeli; Gebze has experienced rapid growth in recent years- from 159,116 in 1990, to 282,444 in 2009. Gebze accounts for 15% of...
and Ceyhan
Ceyhan
Ceyhan is a city in southeast Turkey and with 105,000 inhabitants it is the second largest city of Adana Province after the capital Adana. Ceyhan is the transportation hub for Middle Eastern, Central Asian and Russian oil and natural gas. It is situated on the Ceyhan River, from which it takes...
started a hunger strike on October 26th, 2000. Until November 19th, 2000, a total of 816 prisoner in 18 prisons had joined the hunger strike and declared that they would turn their action into a "death fast".
The compromise Justice Minister Hikmet Sami Türk offered on 9 December 2000 (no immediate transfers to F-type prison and a loosening of Article 16 in Law 3713) was not sufficient for the prisoners, so negotiations of well known personalities including Orhan Pamuk
Orhan Pamuk
Ferit Orhan Pamuk , generally known simply as Orhan Pamuk, is a Turkish novelist. He is also the Robert Yik-Fong Tam Professor in the Humanities at Columbia University, where he teaches comparative literature and writing....
, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature (not at the time though) failed. On 19 December 2000 Turkish security forces stormed 20 prisons in an action named "Operation Return to Life". 30 prisoners and two soldiers were killed.
The transfers to the F-type prisons started immediately after the operation on the prisons. On 21 December 2000 the Ministry of Justice announced that 524 prisoners had been transferred to the F-type prisons in Edirne
Edirne
Edirne is a city in Eastern Thrace, the northwestern part of Turkey, close to the borders with Greece and Bulgaria. Edirne served as the capital city of the Ottoman Empire from 1365 to 1453, before Constantinople became the empire's new capital. At present, Edirne is the capital of the Edirne...
, Kocaeli
Izmit
İzmit is a city in Turkey, administrative center of Kocaeli Province as well as the Kocaeli Metropolitan Municipality. It is located at the Gulf of İzmit in the Sea of Marmara, about east of Istanbul, on the northwestern part of Anatolia. The city center has a population of 294.875...
and Sincan
Sincan
Sincan is a metropolitan district of Ankara Province in the Central Anatolia region of Turkey, a large suburban town 27 km from the city of Ankara...
. But this was not the end of the prisoners' actions. On 3 January 2001, the Justice Minister announced that 1118 inmates and detainees from 41 prisons were on indefinite hunger strikes, while 395 were on death fasts.
Development after 2000
During the ongoing fast to death action, more and more prisoners died. At the end of 2001 the chairs of IstanbulIstanbul
Istanbul , historically known as Byzantium and Constantinople , is the largest city of Turkey. Istanbul metropolitan province had 13.26 million people living in it as of December, 2010, which is 18% of Turkey's population and the 3rd largest metropolitan area in Europe after London and...
, Izmir
Izmir
Izmir is a large metropolis in the western extremity of Anatolia. The metropolitan area in the entire Izmir Province had a population of 3.35 million as of 2010, making the city third most populous in Turkey...
and Ankara
Ankara
Ankara is the capital of Turkey and the country's second largest city after Istanbul. The city has a mean elevation of , and as of 2010 the metropolitan area in the entire Ankara Province had a population of 4.4 million....
Bar Association suggested a solution called "three doors, three locks" (üç kapı, üç kılıt). This would have enabled nine prisoners (three each in three rooms) to get together during the day. While the prisoners announced that they would stop their action, if the proposal was accepted the Justice Minister Hikmet Sami Türk declared the proposal unacceptable, and made the counter offer that 10 prisoners could come together for 5 hours a week.
In May 2002 Hüsnü Öndül, chair of the HRA called on the Justice Minister to enter an intensified dialogue and appealed to the prisoners to stop the senseless deaths. On 28 May prisoners of almost all groups involved in the hunger strike action ended the death fast. Only the DHKP-C continued the fast.
End of the action: Decree 45/1
Behiç Aşçı, lawyer in Istanbul, joined the fasten to death action in 2006. When his health deteriorated, public attention increased. At the end of the year Bülent ArınçBülent Arinç
Bülent Arınç , is a Turkish politician. He served as the 22nd house speaker of the Parliament of Turkey from 2002 to 2007. He is one of the State Ministers of Turkey and Vice-Prime Minister today.-Life and education:...
, at the time chairing the Grand National Assembly of Turkey
Grand National Assembly of Turkey
The Grand National Assembly of Turkey , usually referred to simply as the Meclis , is the unicameral Turkish legislature. It is the sole body given the legislative prerogatives by the Turkish Constitution. It was founded in Ankara on 23 April 1920 in the midst of the Turkish War of Independence...
, met with relatives of Aşçı and representatives of NGOs. He said that the house representing the nation could not stay insensitive on a subject in which a lawyer insisted risking his life and indicated that the Ministry of Justice and the government would act.
Behiç Aşçı and two prisoners continuing the action declared that they would disrupt their action, after they had read Decree 45/1 of the Ministry of Justice dated 22 January 2007. This decree, which included multiple provisions, allowed that 10 prisoners in the F-type prisons may come together for 10 hours per week (previously it had been five hours per week).
In and outside prison a total of 122 people died in connection with actions against isolation in F-type prisons. Many more were suffering from serious diseases such as the Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome
Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome
Wernicke–Korsakoff syndrome is a manifestation of thiamine deficiency, or beriberi. This is usually secondary to alcohol abuse...
. In the Annual Report 2006 the HRFT presented the following figures on deaths during the fasten to death action:
| Number | Cause of death |
|---|---|
| 32 | operation "Return to Life" |
| 48 | death fastening in prison |
| 13 | continued death fastening after release |
| 3 | death during treatment |
| 7 | relatives fastening to death |
| 5 | police action again solidarity hunger strikes |
| 14 | protesters setting themselves on fire |
One group protested by setting themselves on fire happened in Germany. There are another 12 victims of suicidal attacks said to have been conducted as a protest against the F-type prisons.
The Human Rights Foundation of Turkey treated 593 former prisoners suffering from the Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome
Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome
Wernicke–Korsakoff syndrome is a manifestation of thiamine deficiency, or beriberi. This is usually secondary to alcohol abuse...
. They had either been pardoned by State President Ahmet Necdet Sezer
Ahmet Necdet Sezer
- External links :* , Presidency of the Republic of Turkey...
according to Article 104 of the Constitution
Constitution of Turkey
This article relates to a current event. See also the Turkish constitutional referendum, 2010The Constitution of the Republic of Turkey is Turkey's fundamental law. It establishes the organization of the government and sets out the principles and rules of the state's conduct along with its...
or temporarily been released according to Article 399 of the Turkish Code of Criminal Procedure
Criminal procedure
Criminal procedure refers to the legal process for adjudicating claims that someone has violated criminal law.-Basic rights:Currently, in many countries with a democratic system and the rule of law, criminal procedure puts the burden of proof on the prosecution – that is, it is up to the...
(Law 1402).
The buildings
All F-type prisons are built according to a certain plan. After a visit to Turkey between July 16th-24th, 2000, the CPT presented the following details on the F-type Prison in SincanSincan
Sincan is a metropolitan district of Ankara Province in the Central Anatolia region of Turkey, a large suburban town 27 km from the city of Ankara...
(close to Ankara):
- Like all F-type prisons, the establishment at Sincan will consist of 103 units for 3 prisoners each and 59 individual units, with a total capacity of 368 inmates. Most of the accommodation is intended for adult male prisoners (72 units in two separate wings), but there are also distinct wings for women prisoners (14 units) and minors (18 units). The delegation examined a furnished “model” duplex unit meant for three persons, as well as a wing of single living units.
- The lower level living area in the duplex measured 25 m² and was connected to a corridor on one side and an exercise yard (measuring 50 m²) on another side.
- The single cells measured approximately 11 m², including a fully partitioned sanitary annex of 1.5 m²...
Comments on F-type Prisons
The European Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT) generally encouraged Turkey to move away from the system of dormitories towards the cell system found in F-type prisons. It also showed an understanding for the security forces in raiding 20 prisons (with 32 victims) and the forcible transfer of prisoners to the F-type prisons. In a report on September 6th, 2006 (on a visit to three prisons between December 7th-14th, 2005) the CPT reiterated that The CPT has never made any criticism of material conditions of detention in F-type prisons... and then continued however, the Committee has repeatedly stressed the need to develop communal activities for prisoners outside their living units. Unfortunately it is very clear from the information gathered in December 2005 that the situation in this regard remains highly unsatisfactory.In the same report the CPT drew special attention to people sentenced to aggravated life imprisonment
Life imprisonment
Life imprisonment is a sentence of imprisonment for a serious crime under which the convicted person is to remain in jail for the rest of his or her life...
, who according to Article 25 of Law 5275 (on the execution of sentences) have to be held in individual cells. The report stated inter alias:
- The three F-type prisons visited in December 2005, were accommodating a small number of prisoners serving a sentence of aggravated life imprisonment. Their only out-of-cell activity, apart from a visit every 15 days and a fortnightly telephone call, was outdoor exercise in the courtyard adjoining their cell.
- The application of an isolation-type regime is a step that can have very harmful consequences for the prisoner concerned and can, in certain circumstances, lead to inhuman and degrading treatment.
- Beyond this, the CPT considers that the very philosophy underlying Article 25 of the Law on Execution of Sentences should be rethought.
In December 2007, and January 2008, the Association of Contemporary Jurist (Çağdaş Hukukçular Derneği = ÇHD) conducted research on the implementation of Decree 45/1. 25 lawyers went to six prisons and spoke with 120 prisoners. Afterwards they stated that the possibility of 10 hours of conversation per week in groups of 10 prisoners was not observed in the F-type prisons in Tekirdağ
Tekirdag
Tekirdağ , the ancient Bisanthi , is a city in Eastern Thrace, in the European part of Turkey. Tekirdağ is the capital of Tekirdağ Province, felt by the local people to be a quieter and more pleasant town than the industrial centre of Çorlu, which it administers. The city population as of 2009 was...
(2), Kocaeli
Izmit
İzmit is a city in Turkey, administrative center of Kocaeli Province as well as the Kocaeli Metropolitan Municipality. It is located at the Gulf of İzmit in the Sea of Marmara, about east of Istanbul, on the northwestern part of Anatolia. The city center has a population of 294.875...
(1) and Bolu
Bolu
- Places of interest :The countryside around Bolu offers excellent walking and other outdoor pursuits. There are hotels in the town for visitors. Sights near the town include:* The 14th century mosque, Ulu Camii...
. In Tekirdağ F-type Prison (1) this right had been cancelled three months ago. In Kandıra
Kandira
Kandıra is a town and district of Kocaeli Province in the Marmara region of Turkey. Its neighbours are Kaynarca to the east, Adapazarı to the southeast, İzmit to the south and Şile to the west. The mayor is Cengiz Kan .-Kerpe:...
F-type Prison (2) the time was limited to 2.5 hours, just like in Kocaeli F-type Prison (2) and Edirne
Edirne
Edirne is a city in Eastern Thrace, the northwestern part of Turkey, close to the borders with Greece and Bulgaria. Edirne served as the capital city of the Ottoman Empire from 1365 to 1453, before Constantinople became the empire's new capital. At present, Edirne is the capital of the Edirne...
, where this right had been granted a month ago.
The Human Rights Association (HRA)
Human Rights Association (Turkey)
The Human Rights Association is an NGO for advancing Human rights in Turkey, founded in 1986 and headquartered in Ankara.- History :...
and the Human Rights Foundation of Turkey (HRFT), too, have criticized the isolation in F-type prisons. Details can be found in the HRA report on prisons in the Marmara region or the annual report 2007 (reports in Turkish). Since the English pages of the HRFT are under construction (as of August 2009,) it is possible to search the website of the Democratic Turkey Forum (DTF, the German solidarity group of the HRFT), where a backup system for reports exists since 2008.
Amnesty International
Amnesty International
Amnesty International is an international non-governmental organisation whose stated mission is "to conduct research and generate action to prevent and end grave abuses of human rights, and to demand justice for those whose rights have been violated."Following a publication of Peter Benenson's...
(AI) has issued several reports raising concern on isolation
Solitary confinement
Solitary confinement is a special form of imprisonment in which a prisoner is isolated from any human contact, though often with the exception of members of prison staff. It is sometimes employed as a form of punishment beyond incarceration for a prisoner, and has been cited as an additional...
and atrocities in F-type prisons. In the Memorandum to the Turkish Government in January 2008, the chapter on F-type prisons stated inter alias:
- Amnesty International has long held concerns regarding the “F-Type” prison regime, and in particular, harsh and arbitrary disciplinary punishments and isolation of prisoners.
- Amnesty International calls on the government to discontinue the use of solitary confinement and small-group isolation as a punishment for prisoners and to increase the hours of association in line with international standards.
In the document AI's concerns in Europe and Central Asia (July-December 2006) the organization stated: Six years on from the opening of the F-type prisons, serious complaints about the regime in these prisons continued... Prisoners, their lawyers and human rights groups continued to raise concerns about harsh and arbitrary disciplinary punishments meted out to prisoners in F-type prisons and reported treatment of prisoners which, in some cases, AI would consider as amounting to term cruel, inhuman and degrading.
The New York based organization Human Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch is an international non-governmental organization that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. Its headquarters are in New York City and it has offices in Berlin, Beirut, Brussels, Chicago, Geneva, Johannesburg, London, Los Angeles, Moscow, Paris, San Francisco, Tokyo,...
(HRW) has issued many reports related to F-type prisons, before and after they were operated. On April 5th, 2001 the report Small Group Isolation in F-type Prisons and the Violent Transfers of Prisoners to Sincan, Kandira, and Edirne Prisons was published. It discussed the background of the transfers of hunger strikers to F-type prisons and repeated earlier concerns such as Many prisoners also believe that they face a greater risk of ill-treatment by prison staff if they are transferred to a cell-based system, where there is only limited communication with other prisoners or with the outside world. One year before, on May 24th, 2000, HRW had published the report Small Group Isolation in Turkish Prisons: An Avoidable Disaster. The organization expressed two primary concerns: (1) to the extent the cell-based system is accompanied by an isolation regime that provides prisoners with no access to educational or recreational activities or other sources of mental stimulation, the system may itself amount to ill-treatment, and (2) a regime of isolation that severely limits access to other inmates as well as the outside world may also increase the risk of ill-treatment of prisoners by prison staff.
Locations
This section uses details from the German version on the subjectOn 19 July 2007 Kırıkkale
Kirikkale
Kırıkkale is the capital of the Kırıkkale Province in the Central Anatolia region of Turkey. It is located 80 km east of Ankara. According to the 2000 census, the population of the province is 280,834, of which 192,705 live in the city of Kırıkkale...
F-type Prison was opened as the 13th F-type prison. The prison on the island İmralı
Imrali
İmralı is a small Turkish island located in the south of the Sea of Marmara, west of Armutlu-Bozburun peninsula within Bursa Province. It served from 1999 until 2009 as a maximum-security prison island for its only inmate, Abdullah Öcalan...
where Abdullah Öcalan
Abdullah Öcalan
Abdullah Öcalan , Kurdish founder of the terrorist organization called Kurdistan Workers' Party in 1978.Öcalan was captured in Nairobi and extradited to the Turkish security force, and sentenced to death under Article 125 of the Turkish Penal Code, which concerns the formation of armed gangs...
, leader of the Kurdish Workers' Party
Kurdistan Workers' Party
The Kurdistan Workers' Party , commonly known as PKK, also known as KGK and formerly known as KADEK or KONGRA-GEL , is a Kurdish organization which has since 1984 been fighting an armed struggle against the Turkish state for an autonomous Kurdistan and greater cultural and political rights...
PKK is the only inmate is not exactly an F-type prison (only 9 instead of 368 inmates), but also a high security prison. Answering a parliamentarian request Justice Minister Sadullah Ergin stated in August 2009 that the reconstruction of the prison to a closed high security institution for the execution of sentences had been finished. He added that another eight prisoners would be taken there, but was unable to say who the prisoners would be.
| Name (in Turkish) | Location | Website (Turkish) |
|---|---|---|
| Adana F Tipi Yüksek Güvenlikli Kapalı Ceza İnfaz Kurumu | Adana | http://www.adanafcik.adalet.gov.tr/ |
| Ankara 1 No’lu F Tipi Yüksek Güvenlikli Kapalı Ceza İnfaz Kurumu | Ankara | http://www.ankaraf1.adalet.gov.tr/ |
| Ankara 2 No’lu F Tipi Yüksek Güvenlikli Kapalı Ceza İnfaz Kurumu | Ankara | http://www.ankaraf2.gov.tr/ |
| Bolu F Tipi Yüksek Güvenlikli Kapalı Ceza İnfaz Kurumu | Bolu | http://www.bolufcik.adalet.gov.tr/ |
| Edirne F Tipi Yüksek Güvenlikli Kapalı Ceza İnfaz Kurumu | Edirne | http://www.edirne.adalet.gov.tr/ftipi.html |
| İzmir 1 No’lu F Tipi Yüksek Güvenlikli Kapalı Ceza İnfaz Kurumu | İzmir | http://www.izmirf1.adalet.gov.tr/ |
| İzmir 2 No’lu F Tipi Yüksek Güvenlikli Kapalı Ceza İnfaz Kurumu | İzmir | http://www.izmirf2.adalet.gov.tr/ |
| Kırıkkale F Tipi Yüksek Güvenlikli Kapalı Ceza İnfaz Kurumu | Kırıkkale | http://www.kirikkalefcik.adalet.gov.tr/ (under construction) |
| Kocaeli 1 No’lu F Tipi Yüksek Güvenlikli Kapalı Ceza İnfaz Kurumu | Kandıra / Kocaeli | http://www.kocaelif1.adalet.gov.tr/ |
| Kocaeli 2 No’lu F Tipi Yüksek Güvenlikli Kapalı Ceza İnfaz Kurumu | Kandıra / Kocaeli | http://www.kocaelif2.adalet.gov.tr/ (under construction) |
| Tekirdağ 1 No’lu F Tipi Yüksek Güvenlikli Kapalı Ceza İnfaz Kurumu | Tekirdağ | no website yet |
| Tekirdağ 2 No’lu F Tipi Yüksek Güvenlikli Kapalı Ceza İnfaz Kurumu | Tekirdağ | http://www.tekirdag2fkapalicik.gov.tr/index.html |
| Van F Tipi Yüksek Güvenlikli Kapalı Ceza İnfaz Kurumu | Van | http://www.vanfcik.adalet.gov.tr/ |