Turkey’s Ministry of Justice reported that 2,258 prisoners died between 2018 and 2023, according to a parliamentary response released in November, the Artı Gerçek news website reported.
Recent data from the ministry combined with figures from previous years reveal that at least 5,341 individuals have died in state custody between 2002 and 2023.
The Human Rights Association (İHD) reported that at least 50 prisoners died in the first nine months of 2024. Many were inmates who were critically ill.
Ömer Faruk Yazmacı, co-chair of İHD’s Ankara branch, described the situation as a “planned killing policy.”
“We are not merely talking about rights violations; this is a massacre,” Yazmacı said. He also pointed to insufficient medical care and delayed treatment as key contributors to the high death toll.
“Prisoners wait months for basic medical attention due to austerity measures,” he said. “In 2023, over 10 million medical requests were made by inmates, but only about 3.1 million were approved.” In 2024, the number of approvals dropped to 1.2 million, reflecting what Yazmacı called “a devastating decline in access to healthcare.”
Yazmacı highlighted a shortage of healthcare professionals in the prison system, stating that only 387 family doctors are responsible for all of the inmates in 405 facilities. “The ministry’s claim of one doctor per 1,000 prisoners does not match the reality,” he said.
Yazmacı also criticized the treatment of seriously ill prisoners whose release has been delayed. “From 2013 to July 2024, 2,811 criminal and 138 political prisoners’ releases were postponed,” he said. He accused the state of using legal and bureaucratic hurdles to prolong imprisonment, citing cases where prisoners died shortly after their release.
According to Law No. 5275, the sentence of a prisoner who, due to a serious illness or disability, is unable to manage life on their own under prison conditions and who is not considered a serious or concrete danger to society, may be suspended until they recover. However, the stipulated suspension of sentence is often not implemented.
Among those denied release are eight individuals serving life sentences under aggravated conditions. “Even when death is imminent, they refuse to let them go,” Yazmacı said, calling it a policy of “death by attrition.”
While the ministry attributes most deaths to natural causes, Yazmacı argues that 62 percent of deaths in custody are suspicious. “The data show that at least one person dies in prison every day,” he said, adding that 15 more prisoners have died since July 2023.
Yazmacı called for immediate reforms, saying the state must ensure humane treatment and proper medical care for all inmates. He also condemned what he described as the state’s use of prisoners’ health as a political bargaining tool. “Human life cannot be a matter of negotiation,” he said.
The Justice Ministry has not commented on Yazmacı’s claims or the reported decline in healthcare access.
