Prison staff to be isolated after shifts

Employees in Turkey's prisons will go into isolation for a "determined time span" and will not immediately go to their homes after their shifts, the justice minister has said.

"As of [March 30], prison staff will not be sent to their homes for a determined timespan and will stay at isolated locations," Abdulhamit Gül said on March 30.

The minister's remarks came during a speech after a third coordination meeting, held for discussions on coronavirus measures, concluded with the Council of Judges and Prosecutors (HSK) and the Union of Turkish Bar Associations (TBB).

Gül added that the staffers' isolation can also take place at state-owned locations, but that the issue is still being discussed.

"We have prepared the institutional infrastructure," he added.

Turkey currently has no reported coronavirus cases among the inmates or the prisons' employees, but the issue has occupied the country's agenda last week when a lawmaker claimed that a convict was tested positive for the COVID-19.

A probe was launched into Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) lawmaker Ömer Faruk Gergerlioğlu for the said claims, which were denied by authorities.

Gül also announced new judicial measures against the coronavirus outbreak, including alternative solutions to the postponed visiting days of the convicts.

He said that works have been launched to establish a video conference system for the inmates' delayed visiting hours.
Gül also said that all trials and non-urgent works have been suspended until April 30.

Probe launched into 495 people

The minister also conveyed that probes have been launched into 459 people, in 58 provinces, in order to "maintain the common law, peace and benefit of the public."