Prisoners can receive open (contact visit) or closed visits. In open visits, prisoners and visitors sit around a table, with no separation between them. In closed visits, prisoners and visitors must talk via a phone through sound-proof glass. Prisoners held in open prisons always receive open visits.¹

Prisoners held in closed prisons can receive one closed visit per week (Law n° 5275 on the Enforcement of Sentences and Security Measures, Article 83), and one open visit per month (Regulation on Visits to Sentenced and Remand Prisoners, Article 5). Each visit can last from 30 minutes to an hour and a half (Law n° 5275, Article 83). In practice, visits do not exceed one hour,² and are sometimes reduced to 30 minutes.³

Children prisoners can receive visits lasting from one and a half to three hours (Law n° 5275, Article 83).

Prisoners sentenced to aggravated life can receive visits once every two weeks.⁴⁵

Prisoners may be granted additional visiting rights, depending on their behaviour. A closed visit may be replaced by an open visit. Up to three unused consecutive visits can be accumulated and used at once. Weekly visits can be extended to two hours (Law n° 5275, Article 51).

The Public Prosecutor, a judge or a court order can restrict any prisoner’s right to receive visits. This restriction must be justified by evidence that the prisoner is considered dangerous, or is likely to obstruct an investigation or commit a crime. Prisoners can appeal this decision.⁶

The right to receive visitors is sometimes arbitrarily restricted or denied to prisoners, sometimes for years, as is the case for some high-profile political prisoners.⁷⁸ The Human Rights Association (İHD) reported 455 violations of this right in 2022.⁹

In open visits, there are no physical barriers. The prisoner and the visitor each sit at the opposite side of a table.¹ In Bakırköy’s Women’s Prison, open visits can take place in crowded rooms with other visitors and prisoners. Two or three guards are present, but do not specifically listen to the conversations. Visitors and prisoners are allowed to come to the other side of the table to touch, kiss or hug.

In closed visits, prisoners and visitors are separated by sound-proof glass and conversations take place through a phone.² At Çanakkale E-Type Closed Prison, prisoners and visitors are separated by iron bars and cannot completely see each other. As a result, the children of some prisoners no longer wanted to visit them. Following a recommendation from the Human Rights and Equality Institution of Türkiye (HREIT), these bars have been removed.³

Letters, faxes and telegrams sent or received by prisoners are inspected by the Reading Commission, or by the prison governor. The Reading Commission is composed of an administrative officer and at least two ‘execution and protection’ officers with high school diplomas. The Reading Commission and the disciplinary board can block letters that they consider endangering the public order and security of the facility, targeting the prison staff, allowing the members of terrorist and interest-based criminal organisations to communicate, containing false and inaccurate information, threats or insults (Regulation n° 2324 on the Management of Penal Institutions and the Enforcement of Sentences and Security Measures, Articles 76, 104-105). In practice, prisoners are often subject to disciplinary sanctions if their letters fall into these categories.¹

Letters considered objectionable by the Reading Commission are given to the disciplinary board and may be partially or entirely redacted. Prisoners must be informed and may appeal this decision to the court (Regulation n° 2324, Article 76, 104-105). In practice, prisoners are not always informed of the justification for why their letters have been seized.

Cases of letters which have been blocked on the grounds that they “denigrate prison conditions and prison administrations” and “contain false information and slander” have been reported. Civil Society in the Penal System Association (CİSST) also reported, in 2021, that some letters raising complaints were censored. Letters relating to cases of torture are sometimes redacted or blocked by the prison administration.

Letters written in foreign languages must be translated for the prison administration. In-house translators are limited so prisoners must pay extremely high fees in order to do so.

Prisoners sometimes use an internal mailing method to communicate with each other within the same prison. This communication tool can be subject to restrictions, letters taking up to 60 days to arrive from one corridor to another one within the same ward.²³⁴

Prisoners can make one ten-minute call per week (Regulation n° 2324 on the Management of Penal Institutions and the Enforcement of Sentences and Security Measures, Article 74). The days and hours of phone calls are determined according to the number of telephones available in the facility and the security measures in place (Law n° 5275 on the Enforcement of Sentences and Security Measures, Article 66). In open facilities, prisoners can access phones at their discretion.¹ Minors cannot be prevented or restricted from their rights to make calls under any circumstances (Regulation n° 2324, Article 74).

Sentenced prisoners must fill in a ‘telephone call form’ detailing personal information and including relevant documents relating to the person they wish to call (Regulation n° 2324, Article 74). The validation procedure lasts between one and two weeks.

Prisoners must start the phone call by introducing themselves (name and surname) and ask the person they are calling to do so as well, along with their phone number (Regulation n° 2324, Article 74). If this rule is not followed, the phone call can be interrupted.² This can also apply if the call is considered to put the facility in danger or enable criminal activity.³

Prisoners cannot be restricted from their right to phone calls in case of disaster, or serious illness or death of a relative. These calls are not counted as part of their weekly quota (Regulation n° 2324, Article 74). In practice, cases have been reported of prisoners whose relatives were in critical condition and who were denied the right to call. During the COVID-19 pandemic, many prisoners lost relatives, and their requests to call their families were denied.⁴

Prisoners sentenced to aggravated life imprisonment⁵⁶ and those considered as dangerous may be limited to calling their closest relatives, once every two weeks. Prisoners suspected of leading armed organisations are not allowed to make any phone calls (By-Law on the Administration of Penal Institutions and the Execution of Penalties and Security Measures, Articles 40, 88 and 148). Prisoners must be informed of the reasons if their right to a call is denied.  

Foreign prisoners may be required specific information when requesting to make phone calls to their relatives abroad. They can be asked to provide an official document proving their family ties, identification documents of their relatives, and a copy of the telecommunication contract. These documents have to be provided in Turkish.⁷

Prisoners must purchase a phone card¹ from the prison canteen (Law n° 5275 on the Enforcement of Sentences and Security Measures, Article 88). International calls require multiple phone cards due to their higher cost. Prisoners under 18 years old and held in child education centres have unrestricted access to making phone calls² free of charge (Law n° 5275, Article 88).

In 2021, Civil Society in the Penal System Association (CİSST) reported that phone card fees increased, particularly impacting indigent prisoners.³

Phone calls in closed prisons are wire tapped.

Phone calls taking place in a language other than Turkish are recorded. If the examination of the recording shows that the exchange endangers the security of the institution, instigates, or constitutes a crime, the prisoner will be forced to speak Turkish the next time they call the same person (Law n° 5275 on the Enforcement of Sentences and Security Measures, Article 66).

In practice, the right of prisoners to speak another language when making phone calls is at the discretion of the prison officers. Prisoners speaking other languages, such as Kurdish, can see their phone calls disconnected.

Some newer prisons provide access to video calling systems in wards or cells. Prisoners have the right to a thirty-minute video call each week, or a one hour long call every two weeks. Minors and women incarcerated with their child are allowed twice as much time. Sentenced prisoners must be given thirty minutes of additional video call time during their religious holidays. In open facilities and child education centres, prisoners can make video calls free of charge (Regulation n° 2324 on the Management of Penal Institutions and the Enforcement of Sentences and Security Measures, Article 74).

The Human Rights Association (İHD) reports that these provisions are not always upheld in practice.¹ Prisoners sentenced for life aggravated imprisonment are deprived from the right to video calls.²³