Prison population declines by over 8 pct in Turkey

ANKARA

The population of prisons in Turkey has decreased by 8.5 percent to some 266,831 as of Dec. 31, 2020, compared to the same day of 2019, figures from the Turkish Statistical Institute (TÜİK) show.  

“A total of 96 percent of the inmates are males, leaving with just 4 percent female prisoners,” TÜİK said in a statement on Nov. 2.

The number of juveniles, the age group between 12 and 17, was 1,283, marking a decrease of 23.6 percent compared to the previous year.

Some 15.7 percent of convicts sentenced to jail between Jan. 1 and Dec. 31, 2020, committed assault. Around 15.2 percent of the convicts committed theft, 5.9 percent committed traffic crimes, 5.3 percent violated the Bankruptcy and Enforcement Law and 4.7 percent committed a criminal act of the production and commerce of drugs.

Some 29.9 percent of convicts, who committed assaults, had received a minimum junior high school or vocational school level of education, while 29.2 percent of convicts, who committed homicide, had received at least a high school level of education.

Another interesting point in the data released by TÜİK was about the rise of the prisoners’ population in a decade.
Some 319 persons were in prison per one thousand population on Dec. 31, 2020, whereas this number was 172 on the same day of 2011.