TURKEY With Erdogan in power, Turkey’s prison population grew by 118%

In 2021, the increase from the previous year was 11.6%, with the total number of prisoners being slightly less than 300,000. The centers are overcrowded: the real population exceeds the available places by 30,000. 96.1% of prisoners are male and 3.9% are women.

Ankara () – In the last decade, Turkey’s prison population grew by 118%, in the period marked by Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s leadership and the presidential reform of the State. At the end of last year, there were almost 300,000 prisoners in a nation of 84 million people. According to official data from the General Directorate of Criminal Records and Statistics of the Ministry of Justice, in 2021, the number of detainees or in preventive detention in the country’s different penitentiary centers increased by 11.6% compared to the previous year (with a total of 297,860 inmates).

If the figures are compared to a decade ago – before Erdogan became president, when he was prime minister – the total prison population was 136,638 people. The figures also show a real emergency when it comes to prison overcrowding: Turkey’s 386 prisons can hold a maximum of 270,068 inmates, but there is currently a prison population that exceeds that limit by 30,000.

As of December 21, 2021, more than 87% of the prisoners had already been tried and sentenced, while 12.8% were in preventive detention awaiting trial. The approximately 260,000 inmates were convicted of more than 907,000 counts of indictment. Regarding gender, 96.1% of prisoners are male and 3.9% female. In terms of nationality, 96% are Turkish citizens (just over 285,000), while some 12,000 prisoners are of foreign origin. The number of prisoners per 100,000 inhabitants was 352 in 2021, compared to 219 the previous year. Last year, 428 out of every 100,000 people over the age of 12 ended up in a cell for having committed a crime.

Among the prisoners, 24.6% were sentenced for robbery, 8.8% for violation of the duty of residence, 7.1% for intentional damage, 6.4% for the manufacture or trafficking of narcotics or stimulants and the 5% for the crime of property damage. In addition, there are more than 14,000 prisoners for child abuse (114 are women) and 5,095 prisoners for sexual violence (49 are women).

In 2021, 270,001 people ended up in cells as part of 450,043 criminal proceedings, while 240,000 people were released. The balance between entries and exits shows an increase in the prison population of about 30,000 inhabitants per year.

In the 12-17 age group, 999 people were convicted and jailed last year. On December 31, there were 1,817 children in the country’s prisons. Of these, 122 were between 12 and 14 years old and 1,695 were between 15 and 17 years old. There were just over 5,100 inmates over the age of 65 in total, while the majority of prisoners (108,855) were between the ages of 25 and 34. The number of prisons in Turkey was 382 in 2016 and increased to 386 in 2017, then 389 in 2018. In 2019, it dropped to 362 before rising again to 370 in 2020. At the end of last year, there were 384 prisons in the country. The capacity in terms of beds increased from 202,675 in 2016 to 270,068 in 2021. During the same period, the number of incarcerated officials increased from 48,764 to 66,691.