S,R,Y TYPE CELLS

In the first part of our article series, we talked about R Type prisons and in the second part, we talked about Y Type prisons.
In the third part, we will discuss S Type Prisons, which are one of the prison models defined as “high security” and where a heavy isolation policy is implemented.
There are currently three “S Type High Security Closed Penal Institutions” operating in our country:
ANTALYA S Type Closed Penal Institution
BODRUM S Type Closed Penal Institution
IĞDIR S Type Closed Penal Institution

WHO ARE S TYPE PRISONS FOR?

First of all, l
S Type Prisons are a prison type built on the exposure of F Type prisons and the failure to get the desired results from F Types.
S Type prisons were built especially for aggravated life sentence convicts.

“(S Types) They were designed for convicts sentenced to aggravated life imprisonment. In other words, it would not be wrong to describe S-type penal institutions as prisons where one level more stringent measures are applied than F-type high-security closed penal institutions.” (Justice TV web page, 2021)

However, the legal regulation stipulates that, in addition to “those sentenced to aggravated life imprisonment,” “terrorist prisoners and prisoners with a dangerous prison status according to Article 9/3 of Law No. 5275” will also be placed in S-type high-security closed penal institutions.

ARCHITECTURAL STRUCTURE OF S-TYPES:

They consist of one- and three-person cells. Their capacity is 552 people. In this respect, they are a larger and more crowded prison model than F-types. (The capacity of F-Type prisons in Turkey is 368 people.)
There are also similarities between S-Type prisons and F-Type prisons.
One-person and three-person cells are common features of the two prison types.
The account of a prisoner held in the S Types shows how the architecture was planned to intensify the isolation:

“This is an interesting place. There are six single cells in each corridor. Silivri’s corridor had eight cells. The difference here is that the first of the eight cells and its ventilation have been combined and have become a “workshop”.
There is a workshop in each corridor.
The eighth of the eight cells and its ventilation have also been combined and have become ventilation. The ventilation is only available on the middle floor.
There are only triples in Block E. But they are also single-story and do not have independent ventilation. Two single cells next to each other have been combined, one part has become a dormitory and the other part has become a common area.
In other words, they spent all their working hours thinking about how to intensify the isolation.

A PRISONER TELLS: “You can’t see the sky”

Free Prisoner Ayberk Demirdöğen, held in Antalya S Type Prison, the architectural structure of the prison and he explains the following about the applications:
“This is the three-story version of Silivri and everywhere is made up of single cells. When you look out the window, you can’t see the sky.
I-we are on the ground floor. They have made a kind of wire cage for the windows. It’s so thin; even the rain doesn’t let through. You can only see the outside, the opposite wall, through this wire.
Think of it this way; the small ball on the end of the antenna on a radio doesn’t pass through that wire; you can’t extend it outside.
The first thing that came to my mind when I entered here was Nazım’s poem ‘The Lion Walking Around in a Cage’. But this time the cage was not a symbol but a reality.”

S TYPE; CONTINUES THE ISOLATION ATTACK

S and Y type prisons, which are said to be considered as an alternative to F types, were built according to American standards, just like F Types. The purpose is the same anyway.

S types, which were built as a new attack tool to capture revolutionary prisoners, were originally intended for “aggravated life prisoners”, but are still used to hold some political prisoners in solitary confinement.

S TYPES AND THE RIGHT TO CHAT!

In fact, the meaning and importance of Circular No. 45/1 and the right to chat, which were talked about a lot during the 2000-2007 Death Fast, become clearer when you look at S Type prisons.

For the last 6.5 years, there has been a resistance in our country’s prisons for the “full implementation of the right to chat gained through the death fast”.

This resistance is vital. Because, in the new S Type isolation prisons, as well as in the F Types and the right to chat removes all the walls they try to build with isolation.

In the words of a free prisoner, “(The right to chat and resistance) provides us with a solid foundation here, as if we were locked in a cage at the bottom of a well.” (Ayberk Demirdöğen, Antalya S type)
(To be continued… Part 4: What Prison Models Are There in Our Country?)