Prisoners complain about bills, too: Power cut, heaters off

* Photo: Rodolfo Clix, Pexels

Click to read the article in Turkish / Kurdish

The Civil Society in the Penal System Association (CİSST) has released its monthly report regarding the COVID-19 related complaints of prisoners. The report has shown that like the ones "outside", the people behind bars have also been complaining about increasing electricity prices in Turkey.

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Since the pandemic broke out nearly two years ago, complaints have been reported to the Association from 185 different prisons across Turkey, including 130 closed and 55 open penal institutions.

In Turkey, prisoners buy their personal needs such as sanitary napkins, paper, pen, soap, shampoo, underwear and cleaning products and all food products other than daily meals from the canteens of prisons with their own money. They also pay for the electricity they use and pay for the letters they send. They are given a card to be used for these expenditures in exchange for the money deposited into their accounts from outside.

Frequent electricity cuts

In its latest report covering the complaints reported to the CİSST from January 1 to 31, 2022, the Association has listed the following problems concerning the prisoners' access to hygiene facilities and products:

• In some prisons, the beds, blankets, bed sheets and bed clothes distributed to prisoners were used before and dirty; as only one type of product is sold at canteens, the prisoners who have an allergy could not buy these products.
• In some wards of some prisons, no circulation of clean air could be ensured due to overcrowding.
• In some closed prisons, wards could not be adequately ventilated because the windows of wards are small.
• In some prisons, wardens came to wards in large groups without paying attention to social distance rules and searched the wards, seizing personal belongings of prisoners. In the recent period, these searches have become more frequent (two times a week); prisoners are not given masks during these searches, which worries the prisoners who are in the risk group and have chronic diseases.
• In some prisons, wardens did not keep social distance or wore a mask during the counts.
• In some prisons, wardens reduced the hygiene measures and entered wards without wearing any masks.
• In some prisons, heater cores were turned off during the day and there emerged a problem with heating as a result of this.
• Some prisons experienced frequent power cuts.
• Some prisoners indicated that the electricity prices are increasing day by day and they cannot pay the electricity fees as it puts their families into trouble economically.

(AS/SD)