Inmates at an Antalya prison in southern Turkey are enduring hardship due to sudden and prolonged water outages amid the summer heat, the Bold Medya news website reported on Tuesday.
One relative of an inmate, stressing that this year’s summer heat in Antalya has been particularly intense, expressed frustration. “There’s no set schedule for the water cuts. Sometimes it happens during the day, other times it lasts through the night. If there was some prior notice, inmates could at least reserve water for their personal needs and religious practices,” the family member said.
According to the relative, the issue is not only the water cuts but also the fact that when water is available, it is often too hot for showering, depriving inmates of the ability to maintain personal hygiene.
Similar issues have been reported in other prisons. Inmates in a Kırşehir prison in central Turkey were subjected to a lack of access to clean water earlier this year.
Relatives of the inmates have voiced their concerns, emphasizing the urgent need to resolve the issue.
In recent years, NGOs and international organizations have reported a number of problems related to prison conditions in Turkey, including overcrowding, poor hygiene, lack of access to proper medical care and lack of adequate nutrition.
Turkey is by far the leader in the number of prisoners in Europe, according a 2022 report released by the Council of Europe. The country witnessed a 369 percent surge in its prison population between 2005 and 2022, surpassing all other European countries in terms of the rate of increase.
While the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) has been advertising its large-scale construction plans for new prisons, the authorities have generally been ignoring complaints and reports regarding the unfavorable conditions in the existing prisons.
