Türkiye: a life in isolation

HBD. Prisons in Türkiye are built according to the binary gender structure. As a result, the affectation to one prison or another is determined according to the gender written on the identity card. If a trans woman has not completed the gender transition process, she will not receive her pink identity card, which would acknowledge her as a woman. Without this card, she will be put into men’s prison facilities. In the case that she is the only LGBTI prisoner in the said prison, she will be forced to stay alone. For security reasons, she will not be allowed to attend courses and workshops that might put her and male prisoners in the same place. If there is no specific workshop planned for her, she will not be able to attend any workshop or course during her stay in prison.

This problem of classification and separation leads to some LGBTI+ prisoners being kept in total isolation. In addition, they are also forced to stay in solitary confinement.

In certain prison wards, trans and homosexual prisoners are allowed to stay together. In others, they cannot. Lesbian, bisexual, trans men and intersex prisoners voluntarily keep their identity hidden in order not to be discriminated. They risk losing access to their rights, being kept in separate wards or living in isolation.

HBD. The discussion started after the Ministry of Justice announced in 2013 that a private prison for LGBTI prisoners would be opened in İzmir. Both prisoners and LGBTI associations expressed strong opposition to this idea, for various reasons:

• The first priority is to recognise LGBTI individuals in the Turkish law, the criminal justice system, and address the general issues. Only then can the second step be to assess suitable measures for LGBTI prisoners.
• LGBTI prisoners did not voice the request of a separate prison facility. Some of them are not out about their gender or sexual identities to their families and social surrounding. Their placement in such a facility would lead them to be forcibly outed, and would put them in danger.

We believe the opening of such a prison would institutionalise discrimination by separating and abstracting LGBTI prisoners from other prisoners.

The idea of a separate prison has been discussed and put on the agenda on various occasions since. It however did not go beyond the project stage, due to our comments and criticism. It was not implemented.

HBD. All prisoners, including LGBTI prisoners, can send us letters. They can also contact us through their family, their lawyer or through other associations. LGBTI persons who are held in an open facility are entitled to leave once every three months, so they can come at our office as well.

The work that we do includes filing complaints and contacting different institutions as soon as we are aware of infringements on rights or ill-treatments. We forward petitions from prisoners to the authorities: parliamentarians, the Ministry of Justice, the General Directorate of Penalties and Detention, the Parliamentary Human Rights Commission, and different boards who monitor the prisons.

We also provide assistance and coordination regarding practical needs specific to LGBTI prisoners. Items such as clothing, shoes and make-up are not sold in the canteens, and generally not met by the prison administration. The only way to obtain these items is to have them brought from families or lawyers. But many do not have the necessary contacts outside.

CISST collects and shares information about specific needs that are not met and puts the prisoners in contact with the associations that can provide such packages.

If necessary, we conduct legal work to make sure that parcels are not blocked. Our work includes drafting reports on the shortcomings and addressing our publications to prison administrations and to prisoners. We document the infringements on rights and put forward policy recommendations.

Our expertise on LGBTI prisoners’ rights is well known, and we receive frequent requests from foreign prisoners. For instance, CISST has been corresponding with a Brazilian trans prisoner for a long time. Despite being entitled for placement in an open prison, she could not, as a trans woman, be held in such a facility with male prisoners. She was therefore imprisoned in a closed facility and had a temporary leave every three months. She would use the occasion to come and visit us, and we assisted her with administrative complaints about her detainment conditions. She was recently released and is housed in the removal centre while waiting to go to back to Brazil. When she went through financial difficulties, we assisted her in obtaining support from the Brazilian consulate. Another trans prisoner serving an aggravated life-sentence decided to marry a man who was kept in the cell next to his. Because she did not have a friend or any close person in her life, the couple asked CISST to be a witness to their marriage. So there are also requests such as these that come to us!