Council of Europe statistics show that Turkey has the largest prison population in Europe apart from Russia, with more than 300,000 inmates – as the Ankara government continues to build more jails to hold more prisoners. Hamdi Fırat Büyük reports in Balkan Insights on June 27, 2023.
The Council of Europe’s annual penal statistics report for last year, published on Tuesday, name Turkey as the country with the largest prison population among the international organisation’s 48 member states.
“On 31 January 2022, the prison administrations with the largest prison populations were Turkey (303,945), United Kingdom (88,225), Poland (71,874), France (69,964), Germany (56,294), Italy (54,372), Ukraine (48,038) and Spain (State Administration) (47,425),” the CoE said.
Russia is believed to have a larger prison population than Turkey, but Moscow was stripped of its Council of Europe membership last year after it invaded Ukraine. However, Russia’s prison population fell last autumn because of the Wagner mercenary group’s recruitment of thousands of convicts.
The CoE’s ‘SPACE I’ report, produced by the University of Lausanne, provides country-by-country data on inmate numbers, incarceration rates and overcrowding, as well as prison budgets and rates of mortality and escape, for 48 prison administrations in Council of Europe member states.
The survey highlighted that the incarceration rate grew significantly in 2022.
“From 31 January 2021 to 31 January 2022, the median incarceration rate grew by 2.3% in countries exceeding one million inhabitants. The prison administrations where the incarceration rate grew the most were Slovenia (+23%), Finland (+15%), France (+15%), Northern Ireland (UK) (+13%), Montenegro (+12%), Croatia (+10%) and Turkey (+9.2%),” the report said.
The survey noted that European prisons are overcrowded, with Romania, Greece and Turkey among the countries with the most serious problems.
“Overall, in Europe, prison density grew by 4.8% from January 2021 to January 2022 (from 87.4 to 91.6 inmates per 100 places available). Seven prison administrations reported a prison density of more than 105 inmates per 100 places, an indicator of severe overcrowding: Romania (124 inmates per 100 places), Cyprus (118), France (115), Belgium (115), Turkey (113), Greece (108) and Italy (107),” the report said.
In several countries, drug offences accounted for a high proportion of incarcerations.
“In ten prison administrations more than one quarter of all inmates had been convicted for drug-related offences: Belgium (51%), Latvia (43%), Azerbaijan (37%), Turkey (32%), Italy (32%), Malta (30%), Albania (28%), Denmark (27%), Iceland (27%) and Serbia (26%),” the survey said.
Turkey’s prison population has been growing significantly since 2016 as President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s crackdown on critics has widened.
The Turkish government has responded by building new prisons. According to the Turkish Justice Ministry, 22 new prisons were opened in 2022 and in 2023 it is expected that 20 more will become operational, taking the total number of prisons in the country to 419.
With these new prisons, Turkey is expected to be able to hold more than 500,000 prisoners.
Hamdi Fırat Büyük reports in Balkan Insights on June 27, 2023.