İHD 2011 Prison Report - Summary of Rights Violations

The Human Rights Association (İHD) Diyarbakır Branch released the "2011 Report on Prisons in Eastern and South-Eastern Anatolia". The report revealed a total of 1,453 rights violations registered for prisons in the region in 2011.

Furthermore, the İHD Adana Branch, the Adana Medical Chamber and the Adana representation of the Human Rights Foundation of Turkey (TİHV) said in a joint statement that they received complaints of children in the Pozantı M Type Prison and also in other prisons about systematic "ill-treatment, torture and abuse".

In an announcement related to the İHD report, İHD Diyarbakır Branch Secretary Raci Bilici claimed that even though state organizations had been informed on the experienced rights violations no steps were taken. Consequently, all institutions and the Ministry of Justice in particular were responsible for the rights violations, Bilici said.

13 people died in prison

The report draws special attention to sick detainees and convicts. Four inmates died in prison because their diseases progressed quickly in the conditions at prison, namely Gülay Çetin in the Antalya Prison, Şehmus Yalçın in the Midyat Prison, Latif Bodur in the Adana Kürkçüler Prison and Mehmet Aras in the Erzurum Prison.

A total of 13 people died in prisons in Eastern and South-Eastern Anatolian in 2011 as the result of illnesses or registered as "suicides".

The İHD revealed that according to regional records, 256 diseased people are currently in prison, 106 of whom are in a severe condition. The association called for urgent measures to be taken.

Other rights violations apart from the right to life and health mentioned by the İHD are constant transfers to different provinces, solitary confinement and isolation as well as disciplinary penalties or restrictions of the right to communication.

Moreover, the İHD noted that 599 people were transferred from regional prisons to prisons in remote provinces. This resulted in a further restriction for the prisoners because visits by family members were made difficult, the İHD underlined.

According to the data of the İHD, 147 people applied to the association in 2011 on the grounds of torture in prison. Furthermore, disciplinary penalties obstructed 38 prisoners from seeing their families and lawyers. 96 people were deprived from their right to information and communication for certain periods of time.

The İHD announced that an increased number of operations throughout the past three years rendered life in prison more difficult due to the high prison occupancy rate.

"Children must be released immediately"

The press release issued in Adana drew attention to similar rights violations and particularly emphasized that the entire number of investigations requests related to children in prison submitted to the Ministry of Justice had been rejected.

It was said that the ill-treatment and torture of children started during the period of custody.

"The children are being exposed to insult, humiliation and beating right from the beginning when they were taken into custody. Some children were threatened to be killed and others were photographed after they had been given weapons to hold in their hands".

The announcement also mentioned reports by people who directly experienced rights violations:

"I went to the Ceyhan Prison to visit my son. They wanted to put him together in a cell with ordinary convicts. When he objected they beat him. His body was full of bruises when I saw him".

The Adana-based human rights and medical organizations also referred to the incidents of rape and abuse at the Pozantı M Type Prison for Children and Juveniles:

"The children remain alone with their traumata because of the isolation caused by putting them into single cells in the Sincan Prison. Right now, these children need intense social and psychological support".

"In addition, the families of all these children are in poor economic conditions. They live in Adana or Mersin. The possibility to visit the children has even been further reduced. For these reasons, the children have to be released immediately and treatment must be started as soon as possible". (AS/VK)