The Human Rights Association (İHD) has released a report on alleged rights violations in prisons located in the Marmara region in northwest Turkey, which detailed more than 1,500 violations, the Artı Gerçek news website reported.
Covering the last three months of 2023 based on open source research as well as complaints that were received, the report was released at the association’s İstanbul branch.
The publication documented 76 incidents of physical mistreatment, 59 of verbal assault and 25 incidents of the arbitrary isolation of inmates in one-person cells.
It also noted 161 instances of denial of access to health care, 431 of arbitrary restriction on communications and 67 instances of arbitrary denial of parole by “monitoring boards,” bodies consisting of prison officials who are authorized to decide whether an inmate has displayed sufficient good behavior to be granted early release.
Turkey remains the leader in the number of prisoners in Europe, according to the 2022 Council of Europe (CoE) Annual Penal Statistics on Prison Populations report. In January 2022 Turkey accounted for over a third of all prisoners in CoE member states and a surge of 369 percent in its prison population between 2005 and 2022.
