Turkmenistan: Report on Prisons Sheds Light on Ashgabat's Police State

In what is the first report of its kind, rights activists have documented a wide variety of abuses in Turkmenistan's prison system. The report portrayed Turkmen prisons as spawning grounds for serious diseases.

Watchdog groups perennially rank Turkmenistan as one of the world's foremost human rights abusers. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive]. But the closed nature of the Turkmen political system hampers outsiders from getting a full picture of the country's authoritarian system.

The Turkmenistan Prison Report, prepared by Turkmenistan's Independent Lawyers Association and the Turkmen Initiative for Human Rights, outlines systematic rights abuses in 22 institutions. It also shines a light on one of the key aspects of Turkmenistan's state security apparatus. The font of many problems connected with the penal system is overcrowding, the report found.

"Turkmenistan's prisons and colonies house over three times the number of inmates they are designed to accommodate," according to the report, which was released earlier in February. "This implies that the inmates are not only deprived of freedom, but also of adequate nutrition, rest and personal hygiene. In fact, penitentiary facilities have been turned into places where people are not able to preserve their human dignity."

The report went on to note that most prisons receive funding that is commensurate with their officially listed capacities, not the actual number of inmates. Thus, prisons experience persistent shortages of just about everything needed by inmates.

"Imprisoned individuals do not get access to proper nutrition, recreation, bathing and toilet facilities," the report continued. "Overcrowding ? results in the fast spread of virulent diseases -- from light forms of flu to aggravated forms of tuberculosis."

Turkmenistan, compared to even its Central Asian neighbors, has a high rate of incarceration. For every 100,000 citizens, there are estimated to be 543 prisoners. Crime can be linked to series of "prevailing social conditions" including unemployment, limited opportunities for young people and drug use.

"Turkmen authorities do not acknowledge the high unemployment rate and consequently, no measures are being undertaken to lower it," the report stated.

Not surprisingly, mortality rates among inmates are comparatively high. The report identified a facility known as LBK-12, or the minimum security regime colony in Lebap Province, as having the deadliest reputation in the country. One out of every 20 inmates who enter LBK-12, do not leave, the report estimated.

"Due to the harsh climatic conditions, overcrowding, the fact that prisoners diagnosed with TB and skin diseases are kept together with healthy inmates, [along with} scarce supplies of food, medications and personal hygiene products, the institution reports the highest mortality rate of 5.2 percent among the country' penitentiary facilities," the report said, referring to LBK-12.

Corruption is rife in the entire prison system with inmates paying off guards and administrators in order to gain visiting rights and food from outside. "Without paying a bribe via family members, prisoners cannot get access to things envisaged by the law, for instance work or parcels from relatives," the report stated. "At the same time, by paying a bribe to a security guard or staff member, an inmate can obtain items which according to the rules are forbidden in penitentiary facilities - for instance, cell phones, alcoholic beverages, drugs and many other things."

The report also detailed conditions at the women's colony DZK/8 in Dashoguz. There, more than 2,000 convicts are housed in a building designed for 700. Instead of four inmates per cell, there are 12-14. "Cases of beating and rape of the inmates by the colony staff, the use of torture and psychological pressure are rampant. Such treatment of inmates results in frequent suicide attempts among the prison population," the report said.

Although 80 percent of the prison population at DZK/8 are convicts in drug-related cases, the facility also houses female relatives of the former high-ranking officials, as well as juvenile offenders.

The authors of the report conclude by urging the Turkmen government to adopt international standards for prisons. To start, authorities should "provide funding to the penitentiary facilities based on the actual number of inmates rather than the estimated capacity," the report said.