Activists say 50 people are on the verge of dying of starvation. The ministry also said the CPT welcomed draft legislation that would give some prisoners access to communal areas in jails in a bid to end the protest. Some activists have criticised the changes because they only apply to inmates who agree to attend training programmes. Those imprisoned for their political views would resist such rehabilitation, rights workers say. Turkey defends the new prisons as crucial to breaking the influence of political prisoners and organised criminals in teeming wards, where up to 100 people are incarcerated.
Officials say the F-type jails meet European standards.
Justice Minister Hikmet Sami Turk met members of a lawyers' group who staged a protest in downtown Ankara to call for improvements in the F-type system. Security forces stormed 20 prisons in December to carry out inmate transfers and force an end to the hunger strikes.