Prisons in Turkey - Facts and Figures

Facts and Figures

According to the General Directorate for Penal and Arrest Centres (Ceza ve Tevkifevleri Genel Müdürlüğü, part of the Ministry of Justice) 384 prisons existed in Turkey as of 1 December 2008. 346 of them were closed and 28 were open prisons. In addition there were three closed and one open prison for women and three correctional centres for children. For the same date the number of prisoners was given as 103,296; among them 44,038 on remand and 59,258 convicts.

On the homepage of the General Directorate for Penal and Arrest Centres figures on prisoners can be found on the number of prisoners for each year. The Human Rights Foundation of Turkey has included such figures in their annual reports.

Year Convicted On remand Total
Ordinary "Terror" Sum Ordinary "Terror" Sum
1990 27,731 1,642 29,373 14,488 1,745 16,233 45,606
1991 10,652 395 11,047 14,760 1,044 15,804 26,851
1992 12,301 522 12,823 15,597 3,062 18,659 31,482
1993 14,300 847 15,147 14,681 4,977 19,658 34,805
1994 15,787 1,094 16,881 15,638 6,412 22,050 38,931
1995 20,371 1,637 22,008 17,058 7,025 24,083 46,091
1996 24,651 2,328 26,979 17,697 6,207 23,904 50,883
1997 32,155 4,179 36,334 19,346 4,926 24,272 60,606
1998 31,647 4,239 35,886 19,670 4,835 24,505 60,391
1999 37,986 6,145 44,131 19,953 3,497 23,450 67,581
2000 20,378 4,467 24,855 20,467 4,190 24,657 49,512
2001 22,425 5,116 27,541 24,886 3,182 28,068 55,609
2002 25,514 5,123 30,637 25,928 2,622 28,550 59,187
2003 28,554 4,161 32,715 29,605 1,976 31,581 64,296
2004 23,840 2,170 26,010 30,302 1,618 31,920 57,930
2005 22,765 2,093 24,858 29,475 1,537 31,012 55,870
2006 24,220 2,116 26,336 42,222 1,719 44,141 70,477
2007 34,852 2,418 37,608 47,091 2,102 53,229 90,837
2008 42,234 2,540 45,207 50,470 2,899 58,028 103,235

Meanwhile the statistics also include the category "crimes to increase profit" (tr: çıkar amaçlı suçlar, meaning organized crime, punishable according to Article 220 of the Turkish Penal Code). Since 2010 the cases that could not be attributed to a specific group were also included.

Years Convicted On remand
Ordinary Terror Organized Unclear Sum Ordinary Terror Organized Unclear Sum Total
2009 53067 2967 547 56581 52512 3361 3886 59759 116340
2010 80440 3682 993 1451 86566 29676 2535 1566 471 34238 120814
2011 86542 4179 907 989 92617 29901 4266 1372 448 35987 128604

On 31 January 2010 the official figures were:

Year Convicted On remand Total
Ordinary "Terror" Sum Ordinary "Terror" Sum
2010 53,805 3,051 56,856 57,024 3,254 60,691 117,547

The following figures were presented for 31 March 2012:

Group On remand Under review Convicted Total
Ordinary 29,890 17,597 72,022 119.509
Terror 4,643 481 3,846 8,970
Organized crime 1,283 389 522 2,194
Unspecified 457 42 1,197 1,696
Total 36.273 18,509 77,587 132.369

In June 2010 Justice Minister Sadullah Ergin answered a question tabled by Batman deputy Bengi Yıldız. He stated that between 2010 and 2015 a total of 86 new prisons with a capacity of 40.026 prisoners were to be built.

Read more about this topic:  Prisons In Turkey

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