This report has been written so as to express the conditions of prisons and prisoners with special needs in Turkey. The report which comprises information about developments took place in 2019 is the first of the reports CISST intend to publish annually.
The report consists of two parts given the scope of problems and violations in the prisons. In the first part a general view about prisons, the areas right violations concentrated, and the turning points in the history of the prisons and the regime of execution are recounted. First of all the challenges in accessing data about prisons, the data acquisition methodology of CISST, and CISST database which provides the data used in this report will be discussed. Subsequently, a historical background considering the relationship between the current situation and problems of the prisons, and the transitions of the prisons and of the regime of execution will be described.
Finally, the current situation and problems will be discussed in regard to the intensfying right violations. The second part of the report is dedicated to the findings of the research and work done in thematic fields, put into practice by CISST with the project of “Prisoners with Special Needs” in 2012, which investigates the problems of LGBTI+, child, woman, worker, disabled, student, foreigner and aggravated life prisoners distinctively. In that part, specific complaints and needs of the prisoners with special needs, and the right violations frequently experienced by them are scrutinized.
