ANKARA Surrounded by high walls and fences with electronic alarms, one of Turkey's newest prisons, just outside Ankara, is awaiting inmates for its 162 cells equipped with built-in radio, television, 24-hour hot water and separate courtyards.
But the institution in the Sincan district the fruit of a years-long project to improve Turkey's unruly prisons is likely to remain empty and inoperational until the country grapples with the controversy surrounding it.
@END1 The Sincan Prison is one of the 11 new jails Turkey was planning to introduce next year, consisting of cells for up to three people compared to the existing regime of keeping up to 60 prisoners in a large dormitory.
And this is where the problem started: More than 200 prisoners have been on a death fast for over 50 days to protest the jails, known as F-type prisons, on the grounds that they aim to isolate prisoners physically and socially.
Faced with looming threat of imminent deaths, Turkish Justice Minister Hikmet Sami Turk announced Saturday that he had postponed the opening of the new prisons "until there is a social consensus on these establishments." "The plan will be reassessed so that these establishments satisfy all contemporary and universal criteria on detention," he said.
Since the announcement of the prison reform, Turkey has come under fire from both Turkish and foreign human rights organizations which urged Ankara to scrap the cell-based prisons, arguing that such a system would physically and mentally harm the prisoners.
"We do not yet know what F-type prisons are like, but we are concerned they may involve prolonged isolation including small group isolation," Heidi Wedel from the London-based Amnesty International told AFP.
Turkey vehemently denies that the prisons are aimed at imposing isolation, which Amnesty says occurs when inmates are held in small groups and are not allowed to associate with prisoners other than those they share their cell with.
"The F-type prisons were designed to eliminate the adversities of the dormitory system, where members of illegal organizations, Mafia leaders or even strong common criminals establish control over their fellow inmates," Turk told reporters on a recent tour of the Sincan Prison.
Turkey says it has no control over its jails and maintains that the overcrowded dormitories are the main reason for the frequent riots and hostage-taking which prompt heavy crackdowns by security forces, ending in death and injuries.
The Sincan Prison, monitored through 160 security cameras, except the prisoners' cells, has eight workshops, a sports hall, a library and a football field, where officials say prisoners can associate.
"The prisoners will be able to make use of these facilities as part of a rehabilitation program," Turk said.
Turkey was originally planning to inaugurate the prisons after regulations guaranteeing additional rights to inmates were put in force.
One of the regulations would amend a current provision banning inmates convicted for terrorist crimes from seeing each other or meeting visitors face-to-face.
But this is where things go wrong again, according to an official from the Turkish Human Rights Association (IHD), because the amendment gives prisoners the right to use recreational areas only if they participate in the yet-unveiled rehabilitation program.