Turkey’s closed prison population has surpassed capacity by nearly 20 percent, despite recent legal reforms and amnesty laws aimed at reducing overcrowding.
Recent data from the Ministry of Justice shows that after a brief decline following a special law enacted in July 2023, inmate numbers surged, reaching over 277,000 in closed prisons — penal facilities implementing a high level of supervision of inmates — by September 2024.
This marks a nearly 20 percent overcapacity rate, a troubling trend that has persisted for years.
The Ministry of Justice recently proposed a new law that would require inmates to serve longer sentences in closed prisons, with a person sentenced to two years needing to serve a minimum of five months, as opposed to no time required under current law for such a short sentence.
According to the Arrested Lawyers initiative, this move will likely worsen overcrowding unless more comprehensive reforms are introduced. The organization also argues that the problem is rooted in penal policies that, since 2004, have focused on increasing the severity of sentences, an approach that has proven ineffective in reducing crime rates or alleviating overcrowding.
In recent years NGOs and international organizations have reported a number of problems related to prison conditions in Turkey, including overcrowding, poor hygiene, lack of access to proper medical care and lack of adequate nutrition.
Turkey is by far the leader in the number of prisoners in Europe, according a 2022 report released by the Council of Europe. The country witnessed a 369 percent surge in its prison population between 2005 and 2022, surpassing all other European countries in terms of the rate of increase. While the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) has been advertising its large-scale construction plans for new prisons, the authorities have generally been ignoring complaints and reports regarding the unfavorable conditions in the existing pris
