‘No hot water offered in some wards, cold water cut’

* Photo: İHD

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The Human Rights Association (İHD) Mersin Branch has published its report on the Tarsus Type T Prison in southern Turkey.

The report has been prepared based on the verbal and written applications to the İHD Mersin Branch in March-October 2021 as well as the meetings with prisoners held by the lawyers from the Freedom for Lawyers Association (ÖHD) Mersin Branch and the Çukurova Association for Assistance and Solidarity with the Families of Arrestees and Convicts Mersin Branch.

Some of the main findings of the report are as follows:

'Life made unbearable for ill prisoners'

"Inhuman and degrading treatment, including strip search, is still in place."

"Prison conditions and rights violations have made life unbearable for ill prisoners; especially the prisoners with serious chronic diseases are not provided with reasonable living and treatment conditions and their requests for being taken to the sickroom are kept in suspension.

"The Mersin-based physicians' acts of evading treatment of prisoners with their behavior and tone, methods of treatment or arbitrary attitude has reached a grave and concerning point.

"Even though they do not give any impression of danger, prisoners are biasedly forced to undergo treatment in handcuffs.

"During the examination of S.K., during which his or her private parts were seen as part of the course of the treatment, the warden was inside; the prisoner, uncomfortable with the warden's presence, was verbally harassed by the physician and his/her treatment was interrupted, which constitutes a grave attack on human rights and professional dignity.

'Books on Kurdish history, culture not allowed'

"As for the findings regarding health and nutrition, the food offered in prison is very meager and in an inedible condition; the tap water comes from a well and is salty; the ongoing problem with hot water has not been fully solved; some wards have not been provided with hot water for a long time while cold water is cut; the products sold at the canteen are of very low quality, out of standards and sold for very expensive prices; for this reason, prisoners have very limited opportunities to shop there; it is made difficult to meet the needs for supplementary food and water is met from the canteen...

"Despite the pandemic conditions, prisoners are not provided with necessary and adequate cleaning products by the prison administration, they are offered very few masks, they have to use the same mask for a long time, most of the wardens do not wear masks and they do not take measures about it, which jeopardizes the health of prisoners.

"The books about the Kurdish language, history and culture are not given to prisoners; however, they can receive books about other languages, histories or cultures when they want, which prevents prisoners from coming to know their own culture and identity."

Concluding its report on the Tarsus Type T Closed Prison, the İHD Mersin Branch has also offered a series of recommendations to eliminate the aforementioned problems and violations of rights. (AS/SD)