There are three types of prison in Turkey: closed, semi-open, and open. A further distinction is made between ordinary closed prisons and high-security prisons. Many prisons have separate blocks (or wings) for women and some also for children (juveniles), but there are also some prisons which are exclusively for women or children. Prisoners in Turkey must be divided, as per law, into remand prisoners (those being held in pre-trial detention) and convicted prisoners (whose sentences are being carried out). In practice, they are held in the same wards and cells.
History In the Ottoman Empire prisons were called dungeons (zindan). In Turkey, these were mostly dark and damp towers.See the Turkish Wikipedia The first prison was built in Sultanahmet quarter of Istanbul and it was called general prison (Hapishane-i Umumi).Dr. Cevdet YILMAZ: The Historical Castle-Prison of Sinop, published in Eastern Geographical Review, edition 22, page 6.
Besides the death penalty the Penal Code of 1858 included three different types of sentences: rowing on a galley (kürek), pillorying (prangabentlik) and imprisonment in a tower (kalebentlik).See an article of Dr. Mustafa AVCI, accessed on 18 August 2009
The Penal Code of 1 March 1926 (Law 765) made a difference between heavy crimes and corresponding sentences (ağır suç and ağır ceza) and light crimes (hafif suç and hafif ceza). Besides offences (cürüm) there is a separate law on infringements (kabahat). By Law 5349 dated 11 May 2005 the differentiation between light and heavy sentences was lifted.
Between 1980 and 2000
On 12 September 1980 the military seized power in Turkey and the five generals (General Staff) announced martial law in all of the then existing 67 provinces. Members of armed and unarmed left and right organizations that had been engaged in bitter fighting were charged at military courts and in some places held in military prisons. The military prison of Mamak, in Ankara, Metris Prison (in Istanbul) and Diyarbakır PrisonThe website Diyarbakır zindanı offers many details (in Turkish) (often called the hell of Diyarbakır) gained notoriety.
Because of the large number of prisoners new prisons were built. In a report of November 1988, Amnesty International said that the number of prisons had increased to 644 and their capacity had been raised from 55,000 to more than 80,000.AI Index: EUR/44/65/88 (November 1988). See an online edition in pictures Since 1986 relatives of prisoners organized in the Human Rights Association (HRA) or in groups in solidarity with certain prisoners such as TAYAD.Background of the organization on a private homepage, accessed on 27 August 2009 With their help the prisoners tried to make their demands for improved prison conditions for which they frequently went on hunger strikes.
In April 1991 Law 3713 on Fighting Terrorism (called Anti-Terror-Law, ATL) was passed. Article 16 provided that all prisoners charged under this law had to be held in high security prisons.
Since 2000
In 1996 the political prisoners succeeded in their objection to be transferred to the first high security prison in Eskişehir (it was called "special type prison"). Their hunger strike resulted in the death of 12 prisoners. In 2000 a similar action against the high security prisons (now called F-type Prisons) was not successful, although the death toll was much higher.See the page F-type Prisons (Turkey) for further details There are currently 13 F-type prisons (14, if the prison on İmralı Island is added) and two D-type prisons (also high security prisons). The prison population statistics show an immense rise from the year 2000 through 2016. In 2000, the combined number of imprisoned individuals was 49,512. In the year 2016, that number has increased to 200,339. On this date, the rate of incarceration was 285 prisoners per 100,000 Turkish residents. In November 2018, the total incarceration rate increased to 260,000 people. This number incorporates pre-trial convicts. The prison population rate is 318 people per 100,000 of the national population. An estimated national population of November 2018 is 81.68 million. The maximum space of the prison system is 220,000 possible detainees as of November 2018. As of November 2018, the occupancy level is at 118.2%, 18.2% over capacity.
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.The statistics of the General Directorate for Penal and Arrest Centres start in 1970 at the address http://www.cte.adalet.gov.tr/istatistikler/yillar1.asp. The pages are ordered for 10 years each so that the years 2000-2009 can be found at "yillar4.asp".
{| class="wikitable" ! rowspan=2 | Year || colspan=3 | Convicted || colspan=3 | On remand || rowspan=2 | Total |- ! Ordinary ! "Terror" ! Sum ! Ordinary ! "Terror" ! Sum |-align="right" | 1990 | 27,731 | 1,642 | 29,373 | 14,488 | 1,745 | 16,233 | colspan="4" | 45,606 |-align="right" | 1991 | 10,652 | 395 | 11,047 | 14,760 | 1,044 | 15,804 | colspan="4" | 26,851 |-align="right" | 1992 | 12,301 | 522 | 12,823 | 15,597 | 3,062 | 18,659 | colspan="4" | 31,482 |-align="right" | 1993 | 14,300 | 847 | 15,147 | 14,681 | 4,977 | 19,658 | colspan="4" | 34,805 |-align="right" | 1994 | 15,787 | 1,094 | 16,881 | 15,638 | 6,412 | 22,050 | colspan="4" | 38,931 |-align="right" | 1995 | 20,371 | 1,637 | 22,008 | 17,058 | 7,025 | 24,083 | colspan="4" | 46,091 |-align="right" | 1996 | 24,651 | 2,328 | 26,979 | 17,697 | 6,207 | 23,904 | colspan="4" | 50,883 |-align="right" | 1997 | 32,155 | 4,179 | 36,334 | 19,346 | 4,926 | 24,272 | colspan="4" | 60,606 |-align="right" | 1998 | 31,647 | 4,239 | 35,886 | 19,670 | 4,835 | 24,505 | colspan="4" | 60,391 |-align="right" | 1999 | 37,986 | 6,145 | 44,131 | 19,953 | 3,497 | 23,450 | colspan="4" | 67,581 |-align="right" | 2000 | 20,378 | 4,467 | 24,855 | 20,467 | 4,190 | 24,657 | colspan="4" | 49,512 |-align="right" |2001 |22,425 |5,116 |27,541 |24,886 |3,182 |28,068 | colspan="4" | 55,609 |-align="right" |2002 |25,514 |5,123 |30,637 |25,928 |2,622 |28,550 | colspan="4" | 59,187 |-align="right" |2003 |28,554 |4,161 |32,715 |29,605 |1,976 |31,581 | colspan="4" | 64,296 |-align="right" |2004 |23,840 |2,170 |26,010 |30,302 |1,618 |31,920 | colspan="4" | 57,930 |-align="right" |2005 |22,765 |2,093 |24,858 |29,475 |1,537 |31,012 | colspan="4" | 55,870 |-align="right" |2006 |24,220 |2,116 |26,336 |42,222 |1,719 |44,141 | colspan="4" | 70,477 |-align="right" |2007 |34,852 |2,418 |37,608 |47,091 |2,102 |53,229 | colspan="4" | 90,837 |-align="right" |2008 |42,234 |2,540 |45,207 |50,470 |2,899 |58,028 | colspan="4" | 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.In the table these categories are presented as "organized" and "unclear".
{| class="wikitable" ! Years ! colspan="5" | Convicted ! colspan="6" | 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:The figures were taken from a German source on the website of the Democratic Turkey Forum {| class="wikitable" ! rowspan=2 | Year || colspan=3 | Convicted || colspan=3 | On remand || rowspan=2 | Total |- ! Ordinary ! "Terror" ! Sum ! Ordinary ! "Terror" ! Sum |-align="right" | 2010 | 53,805 | 3,051 | 56,856 | 57,024 | 3,254 | 60,691 | colspan="4" | 117,547
The following figures were presented for 31 March 2012:The figures could be found on 20 May 2012 at (in Turkish). On the same page it was mentioned that the capacity at the end of March 2012 did not cover 7,096 places.
{| class="wikitable" ! 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.See Gündem Online of 8 June 2010
Prison types Using the official material of the General Directorate for Penal and Arrest Centres the Democratic Turkey Forum prepared a table on prisons in Turkey as of October 2008. Further details have been included as "particulars".
{| class="wikitable" ! Type ! Number ! Capacity (single) ! Capacity (complete) ! Particulars |- | A||21||24-30||792||Prisons built in district between the 1950s and 1970s. There are 4 wards (koğuş), bathroom, kitchen, library and a conference hall. |- | A1||16||24-40||508||Further to type A: there are two cells and room next to the wards that can be used as a kitchen. |- | A2||17||40||744||5 wards and 2 disciplinary cells. |- | A3||31||60||2,295||6 wards. |- | B||16||64||1,068||7 wards and 2 disciplinary cells; each ward has its own exercise yard (havalandırma). |- | C||7||164-300||1,696||8 wards and 4 disciplinary cells. |- | D||2||750||1,732||11 blocks, one block for administration; 230 rooms (cells). Block E is for communal use (laundry, library etc.). The lower floors of block H and L consist of disciplinary cells. The first and second floor of block G have 10 rooms each for observation (müşahade) on arrival. This block also has two infirmaries with 10 beds each. These prisons are built on the system of individual cells and cells for three people. |- | EE-type prisons exist in Adana, Adıyaman, Afyon, Amasya, Antalya, Aydın, Bitlis, Burdur, Bursa, Çanakkale, Çankırı, Diyarbakır, [Elazığ], Elbistan, Erzurum, Gaziantep, Giresun, Gümüşhane, Hatay, İsparta, Kahramanmaraş, Kastamonu, Kırklareli, Kırşehir, Konya, Kütahya, Malatya, Manisa, Mardin, Mersin, Muğla, Muş, Nazilli, Nevşehir, Niğde, Ordu, Samsun, Siirt, Sinop, Sivas, Şanlıurfa, Trabzon, Uşak, Ümraniye and Yozgat||45||600-1,000||29,753||Built on two floors based on the ward (koğuş) system and later changed to rooms for 2, 4, 6, 8 and 10 persons. Each room has its own exercise yard. The lower floors are for eating; the upper floors are the dormitories. |- | F||13||368||4,966||See F-type Prisons (Turkey) |- | H||5||500||3,255||Built on two floors on the room (cell) system. There are 200 individual cells and 100 cells for 3 persons. |- | K1||83||60||3553||They are found in districts with 4 wards and 2 disciplinary cells. Each ward has its own exercise yard. |- | K2||24||60-150||1,446||Like type K1 with 6 wards and 2 disciplinary cells. |-