On 11 March 2021, a working group (WG) meeting was held with the attendance of 19 participants, including Ministry of Justice (MoJ) inspectors, prison controllers and representatives of the Directorate General for Prisons and Detention Houses (DGPDH). During the meeting, the civil monitoring boards’ (CMBs) monitoring toolkit and its adjustment to the specific needs of the MoJ inspectors and DGPDH and controllers was discussed. The activity, which was organised following the request by the DGPDH, marked a next step towards the establishment of a uniformed methodology and minimum standards encompassing all prison inspection and monitoring stages.
The Council of Europe consultants presented the situation analysis, which was developed as preparatory work to the process, and facilitated fruitful discussions among participants, thus receiving the necessary input to be reflected in first draft of the Prison Control Handbook. They also shared good prison inspection practices and examples from different countries in Europe and highlighted the importance of a holistic approach and cooperation with other relevant prison inspection and oversight bodies.
As a result of the discussions, the structure of the Handbook will consist of the general comprehensive Prison Monitoring Checklist, including separate chapters for specific categories of inmates, the methodology for conducting prison visits, reporting template and the compilation of international standards. The Handbook will be finalised via online exchanges among the WG members, consultants and the project staff.
The meeting was held in the scope of the Project entitled “Enhancing the Effectiveness of the Civil Monitoring Boards in Turkey in line with the European Standards” funded by Sweden, Switzerland, the Republic of Turkey, the Human Rights Trust Fund and Canada.
