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More female directors for prisons, says Yavuzyılmaz
Monday, March 24, 2008
İZGİ GÜNGÖR
ADANA - Turkish Daily News
Grim-looking wardens pacing the somber corridors of sinister, black-barred, black-walled prisons appear to have become a blurry memory of Turkey's past.
Ümran Yavuzyılmaz, Turkey's lone female prison director, and the Karataş Women's House of Detention that she directs not only serve as the new face of Turkish penitentiaries, they also smash long-held stereotypes by showcasing women's aptitude for the post.
�Prisons need more female directors, because women look at things with deeper insight and add a sense of aesthetics to their work, which is an advantage for such institutions,� she said.
Yavuzyılmaz, 30, is Turkey's first and only woman prison director. When appointed to her current post in the recently opened Karataş prison for women in the Mediterranean city of Adana, she was just 29. Her degree in public administration was meant to be a springboard to a career in courtroom management.
�I never imagined working in a prison," she said, "but, after I was appointed, I got used to working there. I grew to like and began to learn my profession then."
Woman's aura changes prison
So far, she has worked in four men's prisons, as well as women's prisons in Ankara and Karataş. In her current post, she began welcoming the facility's first convicted inmates this month. Almost in ruins mere months ago, the Karataş penitentiary, under her hand, has become a livable, comfortable prison with almost hotel-like amenities.
�Women make a difference wherever they are, she said. "They bring fresher approaches. Women should help in running prisons, otherwise they won't be able to develop.�
Contrary to popular belief, a woman prison director poses no gender-related problems, but, rather, proves a boon in many respects.
The presence of a woman director forces male staff and prisoners to be more courteous and reserved in their manners and their masculine style of talking, while female prisoners feel more comfortable sharing their problems with a woman, Yavuzyılmaz said. A woman has the advantage of being better able to understand and solve women's problems.
�Woman prisoners in Ankara where a male staff was dominant, for instance, particularly wanted to talk to me," she said. "They shared family and health problems peculiar to women, which they can't even reveal to a male doctor so easily."
�They already face problems just because they are women," she added. "They are also wives, mothers and daughters…What we have to do is to keep them from landing behind bars again.�
Dialogue with prisoners vital
Reasons for imprisonment vary greatly, she said. For women, murder (honor killing or killing their husbands) constituted the major part, while men were mostly in prison for murder, theft and robbery.
�Being together with such prisoners doesn't scare or disturb me," Yavuzyılmaz said. "Rather, it is pretty rewarding to observe their development during their stay in the prison. "They may be guilty before the law, yet it is also important to understand the psychological state they were in that led them to commit a crime.�
She usually did not read prisoners' files, in order to avoid developing prejudices against them. Instead, she first tried to communicate with the prisoners, then decide. Establishing dialogue, rather than taking an authoritarian tone, proved more effective in dealing with the prisoners' problems in such a cosmopolitan environment, where people had different backgrounds and stories, she said.
�In one case that I read from the file, a woman had been harassed by a man every day," Yavuzyılmaz recalled. "She then decides to kill him with a knife. She says in her own statement that �I stabbed, stabbed and stabbed him…I don't remember how many times I stabbed him. I just thought he would awake and start harassing me again. I don't remember the rest…' She stabbed him 30 times, yet just imagine her state of mind,� Yavuzyılmaz said.
�It isn't my duty to make judgments on whether she is right or wrong, she is a convict and a prisoner," Yavuzyılmaz added. "I just carry out procedure. The period before conviction doesn't interest me.�
Not only punishment but treatment too
She said prisons not only execute punishment, but also provided treatment and rehabilitation facilities for prisoners. They also developed different projects to equip them with the qualifications and education needed to be able to survive outside.
Classes on reading and writing, computer courses, jewelry design and hairdressing workshops are just some of the activities planned for Karataş. Prisoners can work and earn a salary in return for their labor while imprisoned. If they complete their courses, they receive a diploma from the Education Ministry.
�Prisons are places where you reap the fruits of your efforts," Yavuzyılmaz said. "You help someone and then observe the improvements. You feel honored and a great sense of satisfaction."
Woman directors part of reform process
The changing face of prisons and such innovations as the appointment of female prison directors are partially the result of prison reforms that began in 2000, Yavuzyılmaz said.
Standardization programs; F-type prisons; the establishment of controlled freedom units that provide guidance for prisoners and follow up their lives after conviction, and the revision of existing laws are all part of this process. After delegations traveled to European Union countries and observed a number of female prison directors, Turkish prisons, which operate under the Justice Ministry, adopted the practice of employing female administrative personnel in 2000.
Another 25 women who, like Yavuzyılmaz, entered on their careers in 2000, are serving as deputy prison directors and may be appointed directors at any time.
�What is good in this picture is that there will be a continuation in this respect, and new woman prison directors will be assigned to the same post after me,� she said.
�Prisons have, likewise, changed considerably since the reforms. There's none of those old, ramshackle structures left. I invite everyone to visit our prisons. All you have to do is obtain permission from the Justice Ministry.�
No role conflict
Yavuzyılmaz runs the 154-person-capacity Karataş prison along with her husband, who is the deputy director. Their differing ranks has never proved a bone of contention between them, either at home or at work, she said.
�There's no jealousy between us, because we're professionals," she said. "Rather, it's an advantage for me to work with someone I know and trust.. At home, where I'm not prison director, there's no boss-employee relationship between us.�
Yavuzyılmaz said she tries to keep her three-year-old children away from her worksite, since children are psychologically affected by the atmosphere in prisons and behind bars, in general. Statues allow the children of female inmates to remain with their mothers until age six.
�I'm having a day nursery built here, but I will try not to admit children above age three if there is a relative to take care of them," Yavuzyılmaz said. "Until age three, they aren't aware of their environment. Later, though, they want to go out and need friends. They see doors closing on them, a normal situation for the mother, perhaps, and an everyday one for me, but one that poses a grave psychological effect on children.�
© 2005 Dogan Daily News Inc. www.turkishdailynews.com.tr
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