PROPOSED FELLOWSHIP OPPORTUNITY

TCPS was established on 1 January 2015 within the framework of Civil Society in the Penal System’s project “Information Network of Prisons in Turkey” supported by European Union Turkey Delegation and Open Society Foundation. In addition to their activities at the civil society organisation, the founders also contribute to academic works on the subject of incarceration/confinement, and consider TCPS as an area of intersection between academia and civil society.

The fellow will assist our current project “Information Network of Prisons in Turkey”, a project that aims at creating links between different civil society organisations in order to foster the work done by members of the civil society organisations on people in prisons. Our focus is on Prisoners with Special Needs (PwSN), namely LGBTI, women, children, foreign, disabled prisoners, minorities, prisoners with health problems, life imprisonment, working prisoners and student prisoners. The fellow will help to organize and take part in our meetings, workshops and conferences. Furthermore s/he will assist in creating international links.

The greatest part of the fellowship will be a research project on one of the chosen topics of the fellow, which could be published within Turkey’s Center for Prison Studies (TCPS). The fellow and the CISST/TCPS team will work together on a research topic within one of the different focus groups of our work. Research projects that have been done in the past by international fellows were comparative studies on one of the sub-networks, such as on LGBTI prisoners and their situation in other countries, alternatives to imprisonment for prisoners with mental health problems or life imprisonment in Europe.

EXPECTED PROFILE

The fellow is expected to have an interest in the criminal justice system / prison system in general and in human rights for prisoners. Even if no prior experience in the fields of criminal justice/prisons exists, a strong interest in the field of human rights and an eagerness to learn about a new field is of great interest for us.

Good knowledge of English and research experience would be preferable. The fellow needs to be aware that it is currently not possible to visit prisons and talk to prisoners, the data that may be used is only through letters and the letters are 99 percent in Turkish.

CONDITIONS OF THE FELLOWSHIP OPPORTUNITY

The fellow is expected to be present at our office from Monday to Friday from 10.00 to 18.00. Public holidays in Turkey are days off. CISST/TCPS will provide the necessary time for the fellow to attend Turkish classes.

PROPOSED TIME FOR THE FELLOWSHIP (JANUARY –JUNE 2017)

4 months from january to june 2017.