Sending Money to Prisoners Is Not a Crime
7 March 2024
Families, guardians, lawyers, and relatives of prisoners who have been depositing money to prisoners have long been facing judicial harassment under the Law on the Prevention of the Financing of the Proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction. People are taken into custody, lawsuits are filed against them, sentences are imposed, and arrests continue on charges of “financing terrorism.”
However, depositing money to prisoners is done within the framework of the “Regulation on the Use of Personal Money Deposits of Convicts and Detainees.” According to Article 5 of the Regulation: “Money received by bank, mail or deposited by visitors in the name and account of convicts and detainees shall be received and recorded by personnel to be assigned by the administration. In institutions with a director, convicts and detainees cannot keep cash with them in any way.”
How the money deposited in the prisoner’s account will be spent is also described by the same regulation. According to Article 8 of the Regulation: “The expenditures to be made by convicts and detainees incarcerated in institutions with a director are realized through the records kept without cash movement. The convicts and detainees shall spend money within the weekly limit determined by the Ministry, without cash movement, through this system in institutions with an electronic money payment system, and through the money transferred directly from the escrow money account to the commissary account in other institutions. In the event that there is no money in the escrow money account, or if more purchases are desired to be made from the available money, or if the weekly limit set by the Ministry is exceeded, the need request form is not processed and the person is informed.”
According to Article 12 of the Regulation: “Convicts and detainees may make open waivers or grants in favor of penal institutions regarding the interest income accumulated in the escrow money account. These funds are used for meeting the educational and social needs of convicts and detainees and for activities for improvement with the decision of the education board. Expenditures made from interest income shall be based on documents and invoices and shall be kept in a file and submitted during audits. Interest income can never be used for purposes other than those specified in the first paragraph.” According to this article, interest income is earned from the money in prisoners’ accounts.
Prisoners do not have the right to get savings from their money. Naturally, prisoners’ money accounts cannot be considered ordinary bank accounts. The use of the money is fully under the authority of the administration. Money deposited to prisoners, the use of which is determined by the regulations, cannot be regarded as “financing terrorist organizations.” Since prisoners can exercise all their rights through prison officials and officers, judicial harassment against those who deposit money based on the assumption that there is a terrorist organization in prison is unacceptable.
Prisoners also need financial resources to meet their daily and vital needs. Sick prisoners have to buy additional food from the commissary because the food provided by prison administrations is not nutritious, not suitable for their diet or they need supplementary food. Beds, pillows and other equipment used by those with orthopedic disorders are bought by prisoners themselves from their own accounts. They also have to pay for the phone cards they use to communicate with their relatives and the postal costs of the letters and petitions they send. They buy magazines, journals, and newspapers with their own money in their accounts. Prisoners’ needs such as television, radio, refrigerator, washing machine, samovar, etc. are also provided for a fee.
In recent years, clothing items (underwear, socks, caps, hats, etc.) sent by prisoners’ families have not been accepted either and administrations force them to buy these needs from the commissary. Electricity costs used by prisoners for electrical appliances are recorded on a separate meter and this expense is invoiced and deducted from their accounts. Until recently, electricity prices were charged as industrial unit prices.
Those who continue their education in prison are provided with course materials, books and notebooks for a fee. All materials they want to use in social activities and courses are provided for a fee. In prisons, life is almost impossible without money. Therefore, prisoners need the money deposited by their families, relatives, friends, guardians and lawyers. Since almost all of the prisoners are from low-income families, deep poverty is also prevalent in prisons. Especially in recent years, prisoners have been held in high security and S-type prisons, which has eliminated solidarity among prisoners and further impoverished them. In addition, foreign national prisoners are completely deprived of the financial support they need due to the problems they have in reaching their families, lack of communication, and procedures that cannot be overcome.
İHD receives applications from prisoners themselves and their families requesting financial support due to the deepening poverty in prisons. As a result of the judicial harassment of the families and relatives of prisoners and the criminalization of depositing money to prisoners, prisoners are unable to meet any of their needs, which will bring about both physical and mental problems and violations. The detention, prosecution and arrest of people who are subjected to judicial harassment also cause irreparable consequences on their relatives, depriving them of their jobs, depriving them of their freedom, and socially harming them.
In conclusion, depositing money into the accounts of prisoners in prisons is not a crime. Judicial harassment of their families, relatives, and lawyers must be put to an end and the law must be annulled.
Human Rights Association
Central Prisons Committee