Turkish prisoners death-fasted against U.S.-style cell isolation, and fifty died

Evidence

In October 2000, prisoners in Turkey, many of whom are associated with left political movements, began a “death fast” as a way of dramatizing their opposition to the Turkish government’s decision to introduce “F~Type,” or U.S.-style, prisons. Compared to the traditional dormitory-style facilb ties, these new prisons consist of one- to three-person cells, which are opposed by die prisoners because of the regimes of isolation they facilitate and because mistreatment and torture are far more likely in isolation. In December 2000, thirty prisoners were killed in clashes with security forces in twenty prisons. As of September 2002, more than fifty prisoners have died of hunger, including two women, Gulnihal Yilmaz and Birsen Hosver, who were among the most recent prisoners to succumb to the death fast. — Davis, Angela Y, Are Prisons Obsolete, 268

Categorization

• XREF: Mortal cost of the supermax model connects to prior material on isolation and sensory deprivation.

Related

• The U.S. supermax solitary-confinement model is spreading worldwide (similarity 0.78)