The architectural model of High Security Prisons, known to the public as “pit-type,” has faced criticism since the day they were opened due to the institutionalization of the isolation system. The government had announced after the 2016 Turkish coup attempt that those accused of being members of the Fethullahist Terrorist Organization would be placed in these prisons. However, shortly afterward, the prisons also became facilities where political prisoners and those convicted of ordinary crimes were held.
There are currently a total of 22 High Security Prisons in Turkey, including 13 Y-type and 7 S-type facilities. The prisons have been constructed entirely according to strict isolation conditions. Y-type prisons contain single-person cells, while S-type prisons consist of three-person cells; the cells have no connection with one another.
Both bar associations and institutions such as the Turkish Medical Association have repeatedly stressed that pit-type prisons should be closed, warning that they create serious problems for human health. However, instead of closing them, the government has announced plans to open new prisons.
Protests against pit-type prisons have been repeatedly carried out by political prisoners, particularly through hunger strikes and death fasts. In these acts of resistance, the sole demand was to be transferred from pit-type prisons to other prison facilities.
Rezan Şengül, who spent four years in different prisons at various intervals, was most recently held in a single-person cell in a pit-type prison for eight months. Şengül said that pit-type prisons mean death for a revolutionary.
Şengül, who had previously been held in Marmara, Tekirdağ, and Kandıra F-type prisons, most recently spent eight months in the Kırşehir High Security Prison. He described what he experienced during this period as complete isolation.
Şengül said, “We were transferred to Kırşehir High Security Prison together with Vedat Doğan and Halil Yakut,” continuing his account as follows:
“Before arriving, we had heard certain things and tried to imagine them in our minds, but nothing fully made sense. After entering the prison and being taken into the cell, I realized that this place would serve no purpose other than death for a revolutionary. That was the only thought it left me with.
When you enter through the door, you first pass through an electronically controlled gate and then you are taken into a cell where it is impossible to see outside through the bars. There is a tightly woven iron grille, and they have cut off even your relationship with the sky.”
Held in a single-person cell for eight months in a pit-type prison, Şengül also described the location of his cell: “I spent eight months in a single-person cell; on my right and left were drug dealers, and on the floor below me there was a rapist who had raped his aunt’s daughter and cut her in half with a saw. In such a place, it is impossible for any revolutionary culture to survive. For a person with revolutionary ideas, I thought this place was created precisely to kill.”
Ventilation also turned into a tool of torture
Rezan Şengül said that the ventilation yard had also been turned into a tool of torture and described the conditions as follows: “Because I was on the third floor, I did not have a ventilation yard belonging to my own cell. I was taken out of the cell to a separate area for only one hour a day. In the place where I was taken, there was no sink to meet my basic needs and no chair to sit on. We were not allowed to take books or newspapers with us. The area I was taken to was about twice the size of the cell. Once you went there, you had to complete the full hour; after one hour, you were taken back to your cell under the escort of gendarmes.
The ventilation yard was located in a place completely separate from all the cells. It was an enclosed space where you could not see anyone, where there was no field of view, and where all four sides were closed. It did not receive sunlight and was surrounded by high walls. They take you from your cell and place you in an area about fifteen steps long and eight steps wide and say, ‘This is the ventilation yard.’ There is nowhere to relieve yourself, nowhere to sit. If it rains, there is no place to shelter. Even if you want to return to your cell, you cannot; you are forced to spend the full hour there.
There are no visits, no physical contact. There is absolutely nothing from which you can obtain information, such as books or newspapers. They aim to kill you not only by isolating you from people, but also by depriving a revolutionary of the intellectual and cultural resources they may need.”
Books can be banned on the suspicion of ‘organizational communication’
Rezan Şengül said that in F-type prisons it is possible to communicate with other cells through the ventilation yards and that prisoners often form what is known as “ventilation neighborliness.” However, he noted that this is completely impossible in pit-type prisons, adding that even if someone shouts while in the ventilation yard, it is not possible to establish communication with anyone.
Şengül added that, unlike in ordinary prisons, access to books in pit-type prisons has also been turned into an instrument of torture and continued: “The book quota was ten. However, there was a situation like this: if any line in a book was underlined with a pen, the book could be banned on the suspicion of ‘organizational communication.’ In this way, more than fifty percent of the books sent to me were confiscated. Even books that only had my name written on them were not given to me on the grounds of ‘organizational communication.’
There is no such practice in other prisons; you can write your name in books and take notes. After passing through the Administration and Observation Board, the books could be given to the detainee or prisoner. But here they were absolutely not given.”
Even visits were carried out under isolation
Rezan Şengül said that lawyer and family visits in pit-type prisons were also used as part of the isolation system and described the conditions as follows: “In F-type prisons there were lawyer cabins next to each other, and in those areas you still had the chance to see other lawyers and other prisoners. But the situation was different in the pit-type prisons called High Security Prisons; in pit-type prisons this possibility had been completely eliminated. The lawyer’s cabins were entirely closed and designed in a way that cut off all communication with other prisoners.
Family visits were also different from those in other prisons. No one other than you and your family members was allowed into the hall where the visit took place; a single person was taken into a huge hall. They were trying to isolate us from one another to the fullest extent possible.”
Şengül also said that their participation in court hearings was prevented and that the use of the SEGBIS system was imposed on them. He said, “Our participation in court hearings and in proceedings before the execution judgeships was prevented from beginning to end. Even those of us who were imprisoned in the same case were not taken to the SEGBIS room at the same time. Each of us was brought out into separate rooms so that we could not see one another.”
They aim to turn you into a political corpse
Rezan Şengül said that access to health care was also subject to pressure and restrictions, like many other rights, and stated that their rights were being violated. He said: “In pit-type prisons, when going to the hospital, they imposed strip searches inside the mouth. They imposed searching for every strand of hair. They forced us to remove our shoes and subjected our clothes thorough searches. All of this was done even though we had already passed through X-ray devices. Because of this, we were never able to go to the hospital.”
Şengül also spoke about the resistance against pit-type prisons and continued: “They aim to turn you into a political corpse. When you bring together practices such as a person with revolutionary ideas being unable to access the books they want, being unable to communicate with their comrades freely, being kept under isolation, having even the right to defense taken away, and having the rights to social interaction and ventilation confiscated, you realize that you are facing a very comprehensive attack. For this reason, our fundamental demand is that pit-type prisons be closed and that we be transferred to other prisons.
The Malta Declaration on Hunger Strikers, to which Turkey is also a signatory, provides legal protection for hunger strikes. We exercised our legal rights. We were not criminals; we had been imprisoned because of our revolutionary ideas. As a result of the resistance, many of our friends were either released or transferred to other prisons. If today everyone defines these prisons not as high security prisons but as pit-type prisons, this is because of the resistance of revolutionaries.
In such prisons, the only way to survive is to resist. However, the threat continues and is even increasing. The only way forward is for society to raise its voice more strongly.”
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