"The pressure and insults the inmates and their families are faced with at the F-type prisons are unacceptable and cannot be kept in the dark anymore. They virtually have no rights. It is clear that hiding this problem would only lead to the creation of a cruel political regime and would have no contribution to the democratization of our country." (KO/EA/YE)
Unlock The Box!
BIA (Istanbul) - "Health conditions at prisons should be improved and isolation should be eliminated," said the Istanbul Chamber of Physicians. "The complaints of the families of inmates are worrying." Calling on the government to cooperate with local physicians chambers.
The Istanbul Chamber of Physicians (ITO) has called on the government to improve the physical and psychological health conditions of the inmates, especially of those at the maximum-security F-type prisons. The Chamber has also asked the government to cooperate with the chambers of physicians when needed.
Through legal amendments, the government has left the people's right to a healthy life to the mercy of the market, the ITO board of directors said in a written statement. "This is also affecting the prisoners."
ITO said that tens of people have chosen to die since the "returning to life" operation 4.5 years ago. It cited the complaints of the families of inmates and added that health conditions at the F-type prisons are threatening the lives of the prisoners.
"The prisoners are forced to live in physical and social isolation," said the statement. "From the increasing number of complaints from their families, it can be told that the prisoners are deliberately left to die. Prison authorities are preventing treatment although some inmates have serious health problems. They are only transferred to hospitals at the very last stage of their sickness. They are even prevented from using medicine."
ITO had earlier applied to the Justice Ministry and proposed that an independent group of physicians, under the supervision of the Turkish Physicians Association, inspect the health services in prisons. The Justice Ministry rejected the proposal saying "health services are being provided in the related units," according to ITO.
Media is silent about the issue
"Media's silence about what's going on in the prisons is interesting," said ITO, adding:
"The pressure and insults the inmates and their families are faced with at the F-type prisons are unacceptable and cannot be kept in the dark anymore. They virtually have no rights. It is clear that hiding this problem would only lead to the creation of a cruel political regime and would have no contribution to the democratization of our country." (KO/EA/YE)
"Execution and punishment system more important than type of prisons":
A report prepared by professional unions in Izmir has said that the type of prison was not important, but punishment and execution systems should be discussed. The death fasts, held by leftist prisoners for more than 200 days in protest against the cell-based F-type prisons, and the construction and health standards of the F-type prisons were discussed in the report.
It was alleged that the problem did not come from the type of prison, the main problems causing riots and bickering in the prisons were the policies on execution and punishment implementations. Various professional unions prepared reports in their own fields. The Izmir Bar Association prepared a report on jurisprudence, Construction Engineers prepared a report on the inner design of prisons and the physicians union prepared a report on health conditions within the prisons. Their reports were merged to be published as a booklet. The final report has been prepared after long evaluation and investigation into the current situation of the prisons.
The report stated that the prisons, developed by the Justice Ministry, were not hotels, but the prisoners have social and cultural rights during their stay in the prisons.
Construction and health conditions
The report also contains the datum of report on prisons, which was prepared by the Human Rights Commission of the Turkish Grand National Assembly (TBMM). Inner design of the prisons was evaluated in the report, focusing on the Kiriklar F-type prison. Dangerous prisoners have been identified by the objective criteria in democracy, the basic principles to identify the prisoners were listed in the report:
"A proper system should be provided for prisoners to express their grievances and report violations subjected to themselves and enmities among themselves. Measures have to be taken to reduce the bickering and enmity among prisoners. They should be given the opportunity to act freely, and security measures should be taken if there are any dangerous event. Implementation of the security measures must be only toward the dangerous prisoners.
"The implementation of the F-type prisons could cause isolation, and due to this isolation serious health problems could be experienced. Toilets have been designed to double as shower rooms which may cause infections among the prisoners.
"Qualified personnel should be appointed to the prisons and practically experienced professionals should be employed by the prisons to carry out executions. Both personnel and the prisoners have a right to participate the administration of the prison. Different execution judiciary should be established in the prisons."
Pertaining to the health conditions and medical rights of the prisons, the report said: "Medical treatment of prisoners should be given to sick prisoners, the kind of the treatment should be told to prisoners. The health service must be available equally to each prisoner. Prisoners must be informed before all medical treatments. Professional independencies of the doctor and other personnel who work in the prisoners have to be ensured."
The conclusion of the report said that the construction of the F-type prisoners should be up to modern standards, and the reform of the prisons should be probed by all authorities.
The report, consisting of 77 pages, explains how the prisons have been designed. It states that some 250 prisoners have died since 1981 for various reasons. The creator of the report said that the prisons have been considered problematic because of the execution and punishment policies.
"It has been announced by the Justice Ministry, referring to the reform on the prisons, that the F-type prisons in Turkey are up to European standards. F-type prisons are not hotels, they were built to house dangerous criminals. It is the highly established security execution methods," they added.
557 prisons in Turkey
According the report there are some 557 prisons in Turkey now, containing 72,000 inmates, the total capacity of prisons is around 73,000. It was claimed in the report that only these 13,000 prisoner should be kept in the F-type prisons.
Related:
Death penalty-free zone in Europe and Central Asia
A coalition of non-governmental organizations is calling for a death penalty-free zone in Europe and Central Asia. The organizations joining this appeal are unconditionally opposed to the death penalty in all circumstances in all countries around the world on the grounds that it is a violation of the right to life and that it is the ultimate cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment.
As long as the death penalty is maintained, the risk of executing the innocent can never be eliminated. Executions are brutalizing and only serve to reinforce the cycle of violence. They achieve nothing but revenge and cause anguish for the innocent relatives of those who are executed.
More:
http://www.geocities.com/publik15/archive05/2005b18.html
Association for the Prevention of Torture
Persons deprived of their liberty are most at risk as they are cut off from the outside world and solely dependent upon the authorities for their most basic needs and rights. The OPCAT offers a novel approach as no other international treaty provides for concrete steps to prevent these violations from occurring within places of detention worldwide.
More: http://www.melbourne.indymedia.org/news/2005/05/91477.php
Deaths in isolation as prison segregation increases
The use of segregation of prisoners as punishment has been increasing recently in Australia, the US, and the UK. Segregation can be used for protection or punishment, but in both cases it results in extreme psychological stress. An indication that segregation is being over-used is the appearance of deaths in custody from suicide of those placed in segregation.
More: http://www.indymedia.org/en/2005/03/113070.shtml
Unlock the Box:
The United Front to Abolish the SHU is dedicated to shutting down Security Housing Units (SHUs) in California prisons. The SHU is one type of control unit, which are solitary or small group confinement cells. The inhuman conditions in control units, including total sensory deprivation, amount to torture. The United Front to Abolish the SHU demands that all control units be abolished across the country.
More: http://melbourne.indymedia.org/news/2005/04/90471.php
Attica to Abu Ghraib
"Attica to Abu Ghraib: Human Rights, Torture, and Resistance" Conference Convenors: International Human Rights Initiative (IHRI) Friday, February 25th - Saturday, February 26th, 2005 Oakland, CA - Laney Community College
US: Torture, illegal detention and other human rights abuses have always been weapons used by the US government to crush resistance. Today we see a terrifying escalation in that repression, whether against Iraqis and Afghans half a world away' or immigrants, prisoners and political activists here at home. Our strength lies in building on the experiences of those who resist-here in the US, in Latin America, Palestine, the Philippines, the Caribbean, and in countless communities throughout the world. Faced with the globalization of repression, how can we globalize our resistance?
More: http://www.geocities.com/nswac14/archive04/2004a71.html
Where the Norm is Not the Norm: Goulburn Correctional Centre and the Harm-U
In the absence of public policy, this paper is an attempt to shine a light through the rhetoric and test for coherency in the policy and function of NSW's only supermax prison, the High Risk Management Unit. Its present use will be compared with the 'vision' flogged by the Premier and the Department of Corrective Services (the Department) at its inception in 2001.
Location: http://www.geocities.com/nswac14/archive1/WNNGCCHU.pdf
'Killing Rational' and Prisoner Control in NSW
The prisoners are deprived of all basics and made to earn small things in order to survive. DCS do this until the prisoner's head caves in or self harms. Once the damage is done DCS send them to the Long Bay Mental Health Facility and put them on drugs to control them.
More: http://www.melbourne.indymedia.org/news/2005/02/87303.php
A VISIT TO THE NSW HRMU, SUPERMAX PRISON
When I got home I felt that I had to have a shower and wash all my clothes to get rid of the nasty feeling, and then I had to go for a long bike ride before I could feel completely free again, because when you go in there as a visitor, you come out feeling that you have been a prisoner.
More: http://www.melbourne.indymedia.org/news/2005/05/91833.php
UK solitary confinement
Serious brutality against prisoners is now routine in segregation in gaols like Full Sutton, Frankland and Long Lartin, and all levels of staff - screws, governors, doctors, boards of visitors etc - collude and co-operate with the sadists directly inflicting the violence. The conspiracy of silence extends from the Home Office and Prison Service to middle class prison reform organisations who accept that exceptional measures are sometimes justified when dealing with 'control problem' prisoners.
More: http://www.sydney.indymedia.org.au/front.php3?article_id=49266&group=webcast
DEATH IN THE BOX
By the time Jessica Lee Roger was discovered on the floor of her prison cell on Aug. 17, 2002, it was too late. In the 24 minutes since guards had last checked her, she had tied a bed sheet around her neck and, after many attempts over three years in prison, finally strangled herself. When word of Roger's suicide spread through the cellblocks of the Bedford Hills Correctional Facility that sultry weekend, two correction officers cried.
More: http://www.geocities.com/nswac14/archive1/DITB.pdf
A TOTAL ABUSE OF POWER
We the prisoners at the High Risk Management Unit at Goulburn Correctional Centre would like to ask you for help in receiving equal treatment and opportunities as other prisoners throughout the system. As we are told that we are not in a segregation unit but we are treated as though we are in one.
Firstly we are being housed in a segregation type environment and yet we are being told that we are not in segregation but we are on normal discipline status, this is in regards to 9 unit and 8 unit of the HRMU. This is totally false, we are not being housed as normal discipline prisoners, but we are being housed as segregation prisoners and in some cases prisoners are being housed in 7 unit which is officially called and used as a segregation and those prisoners are being told that they are not in segregation.
More: http://www.geocities.com/gregskables/archive3/2003c24
The Istanbul Chamber of Physicians (ITO) has called on the government to improve the physical and psychological health conditions of the inmates, especially of those at the maximum-security F-type prisons. The Chamber has also asked the government to cooperate with the chambers of physicians when needed.
Through legal amendments, the government has left the people's right to a healthy life to the mercy of the market, the ITO board of directors said in a written statement. "This is also affecting the prisoners."
ITO said that tens of people have chosen to die since the "returning to life" operation 4.5 years ago. It cited the complaints of the families of inmates and added that health conditions at the F-type prisons are threatening the lives of the prisoners.
"The prisoners are forced to live in physical and social isolation," said the statement. "From the increasing number of complaints from their families, it can be told that the prisoners are deliberately left to die. Prison authorities are preventing treatment although some inmates have serious health problems. They are only transferred to hospitals at the very last stage of their sickness. They are even prevented from using medicine."
ITO had earlier applied to the Justice Ministry and proposed that an independent group of physicians, under the supervision of the Turkish Physicians Association, inspect the health services in prisons. The Justice Ministry rejected the proposal saying "health services are being provided in the related units," according to ITO.
Media is silent about the issue
"Media's silence about what's going on in the prisons is interesting," said ITO, adding:
"The pressure and insults the inmates and their families are faced with at the F-type prisons are unacceptable and cannot be kept in the dark anymore. They virtually have no rights. It is clear that hiding this problem would only lead to the creation of a cruel political regime and would have no contribution to the democratization of our country." (KO/EA/YE)
"Execution and punishment system more important than type of prisons":
A report prepared by professional unions in Izmir has said that the type of prison was not important, but punishment and execution systems should be discussed. The death fasts, held by leftist prisoners for more than 200 days in protest against the cell-based F-type prisons, and the construction and health standards of the F-type prisons were discussed in the report.
It was alleged that the problem did not come from the type of prison, the main problems causing riots and bickering in the prisons were the policies on execution and punishment implementations. Various professional unions prepared reports in their own fields. The Izmir Bar Association prepared a report on jurisprudence, Construction Engineers prepared a report on the inner design of prisons and the physicians union prepared a report on health conditions within the prisons. Their reports were merged to be published as a booklet. The final report has been prepared after long evaluation and investigation into the current situation of the prisons.
The report stated that the prisons, developed by the Justice Ministry, were not hotels, but the prisoners have social and cultural rights during their stay in the prisons.
Construction and health conditions
The report also contains the datum of report on prisons, which was prepared by the Human Rights Commission of the Turkish Grand National Assembly (TBMM). Inner design of the prisons was evaluated in the report, focusing on the Kiriklar F-type prison. Dangerous prisoners have been identified by the objective criteria in democracy, the basic principles to identify the prisoners were listed in the report:
"A proper system should be provided for prisoners to express their grievances and report violations subjected to themselves and enmities among themselves. Measures have to be taken to reduce the bickering and enmity among prisoners. They should be given the opportunity to act freely, and security measures should be taken if there are any dangerous event. Implementation of the security measures must be only toward the dangerous prisoners.
"The implementation of the F-type prisons could cause isolation, and due to this isolation serious health problems could be experienced. Toilets have been designed to double as shower rooms which may cause infections among the prisoners.
"Qualified personnel should be appointed to the prisons and practically experienced professionals should be employed by the prisons to carry out executions. Both personnel and the prisoners have a right to participate the administration of the prison. Different execution judiciary should be established in the prisons."
Pertaining to the health conditions and medical rights of the prisons, the report said: "Medical treatment of prisoners should be given to sick prisoners, the kind of the treatment should be told to prisoners. The health service must be available equally to each prisoner. Prisoners must be informed before all medical treatments. Professional independencies of the doctor and other personnel who work in the prisoners have to be ensured."
The conclusion of the report said that the construction of the F-type prisoners should be up to modern standards, and the reform of the prisons should be probed by all authorities.
The report, consisting of 77 pages, explains how the prisons have been designed. It states that some 250 prisoners have died since 1981 for various reasons. The creator of the report said that the prisons have been considered problematic because of the execution and punishment policies.
"It has been announced by the Justice Ministry, referring to the reform on the prisons, that the F-type prisons in Turkey are up to European standards. F-type prisons are not hotels, they were built to house dangerous criminals. It is the highly established security execution methods," they added.
557 prisons in Turkey
According the report there are some 557 prisons in Turkey now, containing 72,000 inmates, the total capacity of prisons is around 73,000. It was claimed in the report that only these 13,000 prisoner should be kept in the F-type prisons.
Related:
Death penalty-free zone in Europe and Central Asia
A coalition of non-governmental organizations is calling for a death penalty-free zone in Europe and Central Asia. The organizations joining this appeal are unconditionally opposed to the death penalty in all circumstances in all countries around the world on the grounds that it is a violation of the right to life and that it is the ultimate cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment.
As long as the death penalty is maintained, the risk of executing the innocent can never be eliminated. Executions are brutalizing and only serve to reinforce the cycle of violence. They achieve nothing but revenge and cause anguish for the innocent relatives of those who are executed.
More:
http://www.geocities.com/publik15/archive05/2005b18.html Association for the Prevention of Torture
Persons deprived of their liberty are most at risk as they are cut off from the outside world and solely dependent upon the authorities for their most basic needs and rights. The OPCAT offers a novel approach as no other international treaty provides for concrete steps to prevent these violations from occurring within places of detention worldwide.
More:
http://www.melbourne.indymedia.org/news/2005/05/91477.php Deaths in isolation as prison segregation increases
The use of segregation of prisoners as punishment has been increasing recently in Australia, the US, and the UK. Segregation can be used for protection or punishment, but in both cases it results in extreme psychological stress. An indication that segregation is being over-used is the appearance of deaths in custody from suicide of those placed in segregation.
More:
http://www.indymedia.org/en/2005/03/113070.shtml Unlock the Box:
The United Front to Abolish the SHU is dedicated to shutting down Security Housing Units (SHUs) in California prisons. The SHU is one type of control unit, which are solitary or small group confinement cells. The inhuman conditions in control units, including total sensory deprivation, amount to torture. The United Front to Abolish the SHU demands that all control units be abolished across the country.
More:
http://melbourne.indymedia.org/news/2005/04/90471.php Attica to Abu Ghraib
"Attica to Abu Ghraib: Human Rights, Torture, and Resistance" Conference Convenors: International Human Rights Initiative (IHRI) Friday, February 25th - Saturday, February 26th, 2005 Oakland, CA - Laney Community College
US: Torture, illegal detention and other human rights abuses have always been weapons used by the US government to crush resistance. Today we see a terrifying escalation in that repression, whether against Iraqis and Afghans half a world away' or immigrants, prisoners and political activists here at home. Our strength lies in building on the experiences of those who resist-here in the US, in Latin America, Palestine, the Philippines, the Caribbean, and in countless communities throughout the world. Faced with the globalization of repression, how can we globalize our resistance?
More:
http://www.geocities.com/nswac14/archive04/2004a71.html Where the Norm is Not the Norm: Goulburn Correctional Centre and the Harm-U
In the absence of public policy, this paper is an attempt to shine a light through the rhetoric and test for coherency in the policy and function of NSW's only supermax prison, the High Risk Management Unit. Its present use will be compared with the 'vision' flogged by the Premier and the Department of Corrective Services (the Department) at its inception in 2001.
Location:
http://www.geocities.com/nswac14/archive1/WNNGCCHU.pdf 'Killing Rational' and Prisoner Control in NSW
The prisoners are deprived of all basics and made to earn small things in order to survive. DCS do this until the prisoner's head caves in or self harms. Once the damage is done DCS send them to the Long Bay Mental Health Facility and put them on drugs to control them.
More:
http://www.melbourne.indymedia.org/news/2005/02/87303.php A VISIT TO THE NSW HRMU, SUPERMAX PRISON
When I got home I felt that I had to have a shower and wash all my clothes to get rid of the nasty feeling, and then I had to go for a long bike ride before I could feel completely free again, because when you go in there as a visitor, you come out feeling that you have been a prisoner.
More:
http://www.melbourne.indymedia.org/news/2005/05/91833.php UK solitary confinement
Serious brutality against prisoners is now routine in segregation in gaols like Full Sutton, Frankland and Long Lartin, and all levels of staff - screws, governors, doctors, boards of visitors etc - collude and co-operate with the sadists directly inflicting the violence. The conspiracy of silence extends from the Home Office and Prison Service to middle class prison reform organisations who accept that exceptional measures are sometimes justified when dealing with 'control problem' prisoners.
More:
http://www.sydney.indymedia.org.au/front.php3?article_id=49266&group=webcast DEATH IN THE BOX
By the time Jessica Lee Roger was discovered on the floor of her prison cell on Aug. 17, 2002, it was too late. In the 24 minutes since guards had last checked her, she had tied a bed sheet around her neck and, after many attempts over three years in prison, finally strangled herself. When word of Roger's suicide spread through the cellblocks of the Bedford Hills Correctional Facility that sultry weekend, two correction officers cried.
More:
http://www.geocities.com/nswac14/archive1/DITB.pdf A TOTAL ABUSE OF POWER
We the prisoners at the High Risk Management Unit at Goulburn Correctional Centre would like to ask you for help in receiving equal treatment and opportunities as other prisoners throughout the system. As we are told that we are not in a segregation unit but we are treated as though we are in one.
Firstly we are being housed in a segregation type environment and yet we are being told that we are not in segregation but we are on normal discipline status, this is in regards to 9 unit and 8 unit of the HRMU. This is totally false, we are not being housed as normal discipline prisoners, but we are being housed as segregation prisoners and in some cases prisoners are being housed in 7 unit which is officially called and used as a segregation and those prisoners are being told that they are not in segregation.
More:
http://www.geocities.com/gregskables/archive3/2003c24 
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