The downward trend in Türkiye’s prison population radically reversed between January 2021 and June 2024, adding to on-going problems with overcrowding, according to the Council of Europe’s anti-torture committee. The Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT) has published two reports on its visits to Türkiye in 2021 and 2024, after their publication was authorised by the Turkish authorities.
Newly-published reports cover two separate visits
The main objectives of the 2021 visit were to examine the treatment and conditions of detention of people held by law-enforcement agencies and in prison. The CPT visited thirteen police and gendarmerie facilities and eight prisons, including two women’s prisons, at a time when specific Covid-19 measures were in place.
Following up on the 2021 visit, the visit in 2024 focused on the treatment of people in four high-security prisons. It also examined the situation of women and LGBT+ prisoners, as well as inmates placed in single cells for administrative or disciplinary reasons in two other prisons.
Prison overcrowding is a growing challenge
In 2021, the CPT noted that the prison population in Türkiye had fallen substantially from approximately 290,000 at the end of 2019 to around 192,000 just over a year later. Despite this decrease, overcrowding was still evident in most of the prisons visited.
By the time of the 2024 visit, the downward trend had been reversed. According to official figures, Türkiye’s prison population had reached approximately 338,000 by June 2024, representing a significantly higher imprisonment rate than in any other Council of Europe member state.
The CPT called on the Turkish authorities to give the highest priority to curbing this growth in the prison population and addressing the root causes of prison overcrowding.
Further reports due next week
The reports have been published together with the official responses from the Turkish authorities.
Two further reports on Türkiye are due to be published on Monday 12 October. They relate to the CPT’s visit to psychiatric hospitals and social welfare institutions in 2018, and the committee’s 2022 visit to examine the treatment and conditions of detention of foreign nationals detained under aliens legislation and of all four prisoners held at Imralı F-type High-Security Prison.
Read the executive summaries in English (2021, 2024) and in Turkish (2021, 2024)
Read the reports and the response of the Turkish authorities in full (2021, 2024)
