How State of Emergency Affects Prisons

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Progressive Legists Association (ÇHD) İstanbul Branch Prison Monitoring Commission has announced in its report of August 2016 Prisons Report that  the Statutory Decrees (OHAL) are affecting prisons.

The report, based on information acquired through complaints they received and interviews held by the association’s lawyers, expressed that the prisoners’ rights to information and to visits have been restricted, and violence has climbed at the hospitals.

Violence against the prisoners is on the rise

In the conclusion chapter of the report, the violations in prisons are listed as follows:

* Transferring prisoners to other prisons has increased during this period, and many prisoners were injured during these transfers.

* Visiting and phone call rights of the prisoners have been limited by special clauses included in the Statutory Decrees.

Prohibitions on access to newspapers, TV channels

* Prisoners’ right to be visited by non-relatives has been removed.

* Family visits have been reduced to once every two weeks from once a week.

* Prisoners/arrestees are facing serious preclusions in their access to dailies such as Cumhuriyet, BirGün,

Evrensel and some TV channels as compared to the period prior to the July 15 coup attempt.

Obligation of having a guardian present

Attorney-client meetings are limited in terms of time, the meetings have started to be recorded and the obligation of having a guardian present has been imposed.

Right to receive treatment has been violated

Fierce attacks are being carried out on political arrestees who exercise their right to resist all these violations. Thus, new violations have begun to occur, resulting in the burning down of cells/wards in many prisons.

The rights of sick prisoners are being removed by justifications such as “Because of the State of Emergency there is no shuttle, no personnel”. (AS/TK)