SMALL GROUP ISOLATION IN PRACTICE

When I visited Sincan F-type Prison, I went into the room of one young prisoner. He seemed to have difficulty orientating himself and it was some time before he realized who I was. When I asked if he had any complaint he said "Loneliness-save me from this loneliness."

Mehmet Bekaroglu, member of the Turkish Parliamentary Human Rights Commission, interviewed January 5, 2001.

As noted above, prisoners who were to be transferred to F-type prisons resisted such transfer, at least in part because they feared the mental and physical consequences of being held in small group isolation. As Human Rights Watch learned from its research, many of their fears turned out to have been justified.

During a joint mission in January 2001, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International conducted interviews with three prisoners who were transferred from ward-based to F-type prisons during the December prison operation, as well as with twenty-four relatives of such prisoners. Most of those interviewed emphasized one primary point: the Turkish government is using F-type prisons to impose unconditional solitary and small group isolation on inmates. Every single prisoner, relative, and lawyer confirmed that prisoners are being locked down in solitary or three-person isolation units twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. Justice Minister Hikmet Sami Turk, touring a German prison in early February, spoke in positive terms of what F-type prisons had to offer: "In F-type prisons there are workshops, closed and open sports fields, a library and reading room. What is important in a prison is the opportunity a person has to get in touch with themselves, and also to be with their friends."6 However, to Human Rights Watch's knowledge, by February 5, no prisoners had been given access to the library, canteen, or sports facilities advertised by the Justice Ministry prior to the opening of the prisons. Similarly, no prisoners had been permitted out-of-cell time.7

Mehmet Ozturk,8 imprisoned for supporting an illegal armed organization, was released under the December 20 partial amnesty after having spent only four days at Sincan F-type Prison. During his time at the prison, he hadinitially been held in solitary confinement, and then shared a cell with two other prisoners. He told Human Rights Watch: "The only way of summoning the guards is to bang on the door, and still they do not come. It was very cold indeed, and dark because there was no electricity for most of the time."9 Mehmet Ozturk stated that he was not given any opportunity for out-of-cell activities-and in common with all prisoners at that stage was not even permitted into the yard annexed to the unit.

Parts of the regime in the F-style prisons also seem intended to disorient prisoners. Mehmet Ozturk reported, for example, that he was not permitted a watch or writing implements. He also reported that very loud music was played in the outer corridor. Sami Yilmaz, who had been transferred to Sincan F-type prison from Bartin prison, described the same agonizingly loud music and the same unresponsiveness from the guards: "Suddenly this noise comes blaring in from the corridor. We banged on the cell door for forty-five minutes to get it turned off. But they did not turn it off."10

Contrasting with unpredictable bursts of sound which prisoners are unable to control were also extended periods of absolute silence, exacerbated by the lack of social interaction. Sami Yilmaz stated, "The silence started to echo in our heads. At times all you can hear is far off booms and shouts. Even after a few days, three people in the same room run out of things to talk about."11

Each unit in the F-type prison opens onto its own small and separate yard.12 In May Justice Ministry representatives told Human Rights Watch that prisoners would have unrestricted daytime access to these exclusive yards. By the first week in January, most prisoners had not been permitted access into the cell yard, but by the end of the month more prisoners were reporting that they were being allowed into the yard, at least for a few hours a day.13

Prison staff seemed well aware of the disturbing effects of the regime they were administering. Sami Yilmaz reported that as he was admitted to the prison, a high-ranking warden told him "You will go into a single cell and come out mad," and a gendarme officer added: "... and in a few months we will come to take you to Bakirkoy [Istanbul's well-known mental institution]."

As Human Rights Watch noted in its May 2000 report, "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." The prisoners were right. Human Rights Watch received several direct and indirect reports that prisoners in F-type prisons are beaten if they fail to present themselves for roll call at the door of the cell, and sometimes if they fail to stand at attention in the guards' presence. For example, Hatice Isikli stated that her son Alpaslan Isikli, who was held in Sincan Prison, had told her that he had been repeatedly beaten for refusing to stand at attention for roll call.14 Ali Dogan said that his daughter Deniz Dogan had described to him how the guards ordered her to sing military marches and shout military slogans.15 Reports of beatingsat roll call continued throughout January 2001. Istanbul lawyer Several Demir told Human Rights Watch that when she went to see her client Salih Yesilirmak at Kandira F-type Prison in early January, she saw new wounds above his eyes and bruises.16 Salih Yesilirmak, who is held in a one-person cell and has a heart condition, told his lawyer that he had been severely punched and kicked by a group of guards because he had refused to stand in the prison director's presence. A formal complaint was made about the assault and Salih Yesilirmak was interviewed by Kandira public prosecutor, but to date no proceedings have been taken against prison staff in respect of the attack. Two other clients informed her that they had been beaten by guards who entered their cells at Kandira Prison on January 13, 2001. In its preliminary observations on its December 2000/January 2001 visit, the CPT stated that it had received many allegations that prisoners were ill-treated in the process of being moved to the cell door for roll call. The committee recommended that the rule that prisoners should present themselves for roll call at the cell door should not be rigidly applied to hunger striking prisoners who might be in poor physical condition. "If, exceptionally, force has to be used to bring a prisoner downstairs for the headcount, then recognized control and restraint techniques should be employed; it goes without saying that physical assault is not one of those techniques."17

Many critics of the F-type prisons have also expressed concern that the switches controlling electricity, hot and cold water, and heating are located outside the individual cells, pointing out that such an arrangement not only denies prisoners a sense of control over their living environment, it also makes prisoners feel particularly vulnerable to abuse. Lutfi Demirkapi, president of the Ankara branch of the HRA explained why this conventional and apparently sensible arrangement was so alarming in the context of a Turkish prison: "Imagine a guard who wants, for example, sexual favors from an inmate. Because there is no supervision, he can just cut off light and heat and water until the prisoner gives in. There's no oversight in our prisons, none at all. It is an invitation to abuse."18

It is often difficult for prisoners to get health care in Turkish prisons, but the isolation imposed in F-type prisons leaves sick prisoners completely without recourse. Sema Karatas recounted to Human Rights Watch the experiences of Fevzi Durmaz, who is fifty-seven years of age and has a heart condition that requires constant medication. She knows him through eight years of prison visiting in company with his relatives. Sema Karatas applied to the prosecutor at Edirne F-type Prison for Fevzi Durmaz to get the necessary medicine, but she was told, "Prisoners are rejecting treatment because they are on hunger strike." However, according to Ms. Alatas, Fevzi Durmaz had not refused medication and was not on hunger strike. On February 13, Sema Karatas was a member of a delegation which met the justice minister and raised the lack of medical provision for prisoners. Later that month, Fevzi Durmaz's family were permitted to pay money into the administration department of Edirne F-type Prison so that the necessary medicines could be purchased. Fevzi Durmaz has since been transferred to Tekirdag F-type Prison. A number of prisoners injured in the December intervention have reportedly still not received treatment, including Ismail Korkmaz at Tekirdag F-type Prison, who has broken ribs, and Bulent Agac and Halil Karabulut, who have broken ribs after being beaten in the December operation and again beaten in their cells for not presenting themselves for roll call.19

Prisoners who have been beaten are also particularly vulnerable to denial of medical attention. For example, Salih Yesilirmak told his lawyer that after he had been beaten by guards (see above), he passed out on the floor of his cell. When he recovered consciousness, he found that he had lost a good deal of blood. Already in a weakened state because he was on hunger strike, he had insufficient strength to summon the guards by shouting and banging on the door-the only form of communication. He was later taken to the prison sick bay. He has since been transferred to Tekirdag F-type Prison.

In summary, the isolation regime in F-type prisons grinds inmates down mentally with sheer physical, psychological, and social monotony and a range of measures that disorient the prisoners and intensify their sense of helplessness: unpredictable and loud noises, disturbed sleep, services frequently but unpredictably turned off, and difficulty in accessing medical care. What is more, it provides an opportunity for prison staff to ill-treat prisoners, who have little or no recourse when abused.

All these abuses are made possible because the F-type prison is a closed and unsupervised world. In its May 2000 report on small group isolation in Turkish prisons, Human Rights Watch emphasized the importance of contact with the outside world, and in particular arrangements for monitoring by impartial bodies not under Justice Ministry authority. Prisons have, exceptionally, been visited by representatives of bar associations and the Turkish Medical Association but there are currently no arrangements for such bodies to visit prisoners or conduct regular independent inspection of prisons. Sami Yilmaz gave a dramatic example of the transforming potential of outside scrutiny: he described the newly opened Sincan F-type Prison as a cold and dark institution in which staff paid almost no attention to prisoners, except to beat them at morning and evening roll calls.

One day there was hot water. We were very surprised. The guards came to the door and said "Is there anything you need?" We thought at first they were mocking us, but they gave us nail clippers and a waste bin. That evening we heard that Mehmet Bekaroglu [of the Parliamentary Human Rights Commission] had visited.20

In two draft laws published in August 2000, the Justice Ministry openly acknowledged the potentially damaging nature of isolation and committed itself to ensuring a program of out-of-cell activities, and establishing boards of visitors. The Justice Minister himself promised to make "those changes necessary to bring the prison to such a state that isolation would be impossible." At the time, Human Rights Watch welcomed the draft laws and the Justice Minister's commitments as an important change of direction. Unfortunately, however, as of February 2001 none of the legislative changes had been enacted.

At the time of writing, more than four hundred prisoners are on hunger-strike in protest against the F-type prison regimes-some for more than 160 days. Hunger strikers are showing symptoms such as dizziness, numbing of the extremities, sight loss, hearing problems, vomiting, diarrhea, and at least six prisoners have been diagnosed with Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome (permanent damage to the brain resulting in loss of memory).21 On March 22 twenty-nine-year-old hunger striker Cengiz Soydas, a university student detained in 1995 and sentenced to fifteen years' imprisonment for membership of a violent left wing organization, died. He had been transferred on December 19, 1999 from Bartin Prison to Sincan F-type Prison. On March 23, Secretary General of the Council of Europe Walter Schwimmer made a public statement urging the Turkish government to comply with the recommendations of the CPT, which include measures to end small group isolation.

The justice minister, Hikmet Sami Turk has said: "Nobody will reach their goal through hunger strikes and death fasts."22 As Human Rights Watch has repeatedly affirmed, it would be quite wrong for the Justice Ministry to be diverted from the proper management of its prisons by the threat of hunger strike or any other prisoner actions. However it was very frustrating to hear the minister, as reported by Anatolia Agency and Cumhuriyet (Republic) of March 26, state that efforts to change the regime in F-type prisons in line with concerns expressed by civil society organizations and the Turkish Parliamentary Human Rights Commission would only begin once the hunger strikes had been abandoned.

Revision of the regime of the F-type prisons to bring them into line with international standards must be disconnected from the issue of the hunger strikes. As the justice minister has expressed an intention to lift the isolation regime, this should be done immediately. It is merely an added argument for urgency that this step may encourage the hunger-strikers to drop their protest and so save lives.

International Standards

The unconditional imposition of solitary or small group isolation contravenes international standards for the treatment of prisoners, and a number of international bodies have expressed concern about its damaging impact. The U.N. Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners emphasize the importance of contact with the outside world, the rehabilitative potential of imprisonment, and access to constructive work, education, and recreation: "Imprisonment and other measures which result in cutting off an offender from the outside world are afflictive by the very fact of taking from the person the right of self-determination by depriving him of his liberty. Therefore the prison system shall not, except as incidental to justifiable segregation or the maintenance of discipline, aggravate the suffering inherent in such a situation."23 Recommendation No. R (82) 17 of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe (September 24, 1982), urges member governments, which include Turkey, to apply ordinary prison regulations as far as possible to dangerous prisoners, to apply security measures in a way respectful of human dignity, to counteract, to the extent feasible, the possible adverse effects of reinforced security conditions, and "to provide education, vocational training, work and leisure-time occupations, and other activities to the extent that security permits."

The European Commission for Human Rights, an organ of the Council of Europe later absorbed into the European Court of Human Rights, stated that "the international literature on criminology and psychology indicate that isolation can be sufficient in itself gravely to impair physical and mental health. The following conditions may be diagnosed: chronic apathy, fatigue, emotional instability, difficulties of concentration, and diminution of mental faculties."24 The CPT has also recommended that prisoners be permitted to spend "a reasonable part of the day (eight hours or more) outside their cells, engaged in purposeful activity of a varied nature."25

Human Rights Watch urges the Justice Ministry to take immediate steps to lift the isolation regime in F-type prisons. By doing so, it will fulfill its clear and public undertakings not to implement an isolation regime, will take an important step to bring the F-type prisons in line with international standards, and make a constructive gesture to encourage prisoners to abandon their hunger strike. A comprehensive solution, which might involve legislation and possibly even architectural alterations to the prisons will take time. Therefore, as an interim measure, the justice minister can ensure that during daylight hours, cell doors are kept open to permit association within clusters of six three-person units and three single-person cells. It must be emphasized, however, that this would be no substitute for the program of activities repeatedly recommended by the CPT and provided for in the draft law of August 2000.

In order to restore confidence among the prison population, and as a safeguard against ill-treatment and other abuses that have been reported in the F-type prisons, the Justice Ministry should grant local bar associations, medical associations, and human rights organizations the broadest possible access to the F-type prisons. Meanwhile, the August 2000 draft bill to establish boards of visitors envisaged should be strengthened so that the boards are convincingly independent of the state, and passed as law.

23 United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners, Rule 57. See also Rules 21, 37, 39, 40, 46, 58, 59, 60, 63, 65, 71-80.

24 European Commission of Human Rights, in its ruling on Applications 7572/76, 7586/76 and 7587/76 by Gudrun Ensslin, Andreas Baader, and Jan Raspe, 8 July 1978.

25 See Committee for the Prevention of Torture report to the Swedish government (CPT/Inf (92) 4 [EN]; March 12, 1992, Para 160).