Türkiye's Justice Ministry published a comprehensive prisons regulation in the Official Gazette in April 2006, requiring penitentiary institutions to safeguard inmates' physical and psychological well-being and to ensure that prison administrators treat all prisoners equally regardless of language, religion, ethnicity, sex, or ideology.
The rules bar prison staff from accepting money or gifts from inmates or their families, and specify that body searches and head counts must be conducted with respect for human dignity. Strip searches are permitted only when contraband is suspected, and medical examinations must be attended solely by medical personnel. No prisoner may be used as a subject in medical experiments.
Inmates serving life sentences are to be held in individual cells with one hour of outdoor time per day, extendable for good behavior. They may practice a trade or artistic pursuit approved by a prison committee and may make phone calls once every two weeks, limited to 10 minutes per call.
Correspondence is subject to inspection before being mailed, but legal documents brought by defense attorneys are exempt from review. Prisoners deemed a security risk may be housed in camera-monitored cells around the clock. Pregnant inmates receive special provisions, and children born inside a prison will not have the facility named on their birth records.
Historical summary. TurkishPress restated this wire report, first published in April 2006, in its own words.