According to the information received from penitentiary establishments, the director of establishment no. 14 uses the placement in a solitary confinement almost in all cases of imposition of a disciplinary penalty. According to the statistics received from this establishment, in 2016, 60 disciplinary penalties were imposed in total. Out of this number prisoners were placed in solitary confinement cells in 57 cases; and in the other 3 cases, they received a reprimand. Similarly, in 2015, out of 136 cases of imposition of disciplinary penalty in this establishment prisoners were placed in solitary confinement cells as a disciplinary penalty in 134 cases. While the there is a considerable decrease in the number of use of disciplinary penalties in establishment no. 14, the orders of the director of the establishment remain in breach of the requirements of the Imprisonment Code,188 under which, placement in a solitary cell shall be imposed as a disciplinary measure only in special cases. The Public Defender also pointed out this problem in his Parliamentary Report of 2015; however, the situation still has not changed in the establishment concerned in 2016. Before imposing disciplinary sanctions, prison administrations shall consider whether and how a prisoner’s mental illness or developmental disability may have contributed to his or her conduct and the commission of the offence or act underlying the disciplinary charge. Prison administrations shall not sanction any conduct of a prisoner that is considered the direct result of his or her mental illness or intellectual disability.189 According to the 2007 Istanbul Statement on the use and effects of solitary confinement,190 the use of solitary confinement should be absolutely prohibited for mentally ill prisoners. The imposition of solitary confinement should be prohibited in the case of prisoners with mental or physical disabilities when their conditions would be exacerbated by such measures.191 In the Parliamentary Reports of 2014 and 2015, the Public Defender recommended to the Minister of Corrections not to allow placement of mentally ill prisoners in solitary confinement cells. However, in 2016, the incidents of placing mentally ill prisoners in solitary confinement were identified in penitentiary establishments nos. 2, 6, and 8.192 For instance, in establishment no. 2, out of the total number of 240 cases of placing prisoners in solitary confinement, prisoners having mental problems were placed in solitary cells in 29 cases. Inmate P.F. is diagnosed with mixed and other personality disorders (F61) and, in the course of the year, was placed in a solitary confinement cell on 7 occasions for 5, 7, 10, 14 days. In the reporting period, inmate M.O., diagnosed with mental disorder due to brain damage and dysfunction and to physical disease (F06), was placed in solitary confinement on 6 occasions; once for 10 days, twice for 5 days and thrice for 14 days. D.A., diagnosed with mental and behavioural disorders due to use of cocaine, residual and late-onset psychotic disorder (F14.7), was placed in solitary confinement on two occasions. 188 Imprisonment Code, Article 88.1. 189 The Nelson Mandela Rules, Rule 39.3. 190 International Psychological Trauma Symposium (2007), the Istanbul Statement on the use and effects of solitary confinement. 191 The Nelson Mandela Rules, Rule 45.2. 192 Seven incidents of placing mentally ill prisoners in solitary confinement were identified in penitentiary establishment no. 8. NATIONAL PREVENTIVE MECHANISM (NPM), 2016 97