Prisons are ‘crammed’ after the economic crisis

At the end of 2022, when the economic crisis intensified, the prison population broke a record and exceeded 341,000. The most common crime was theft. The number of children in prisons increased to 1,373.

In 2022, when the economic crisis reached unstoppable dimensions, the prison population broke a historical record. The number of detainees and convicts, the majority of whom were convicted of theft, reached 341 thousand 294. The Ministry of Justice has published the prison statistics for 2022.

Statistics once again revealed the justification of the criticism of “Prisons are overcrowded”. According to the data, as of December 31, 2022, the number of people in prisons reached 341 thousand 294. The increase in the number of people in penitentiary institutions over the years was also noteworthy. Although the number of people in prisons showed a downward trend in 2020 with the effect of the pandemic, it increased regularly almost every year in the 2012-2022 period. The population in prison, which reached 341 thousand 294 at the end of 2022, was recorded as the highest number of the 2012-2022 period.

Prisons are packed

Convicts made up 87.6 percent of the total population in penitentiary institutions, and detainees 12.4%. It was reported that 95.9 percent of the population is made up of men and 4.1 percent of them are women. The number of people in penal institutions per hundred thousand people, which was expressed as 352 in 2021, reached 400 in 2022. In 2022, 485 out of every 100,000 people aged 12 and over entered penitentiary institutions.

The most common crime is theft

It was announced that 24 percent of the convicts were in prison for theft, 8 percent for violating the immunity of their home, 7 percent for deliberate injury, and 6,7 percent for the manufacture and trade of drugs or stimulants. Between January 1, 2022 and December 31, 2022, 301 thousand 410 persons entered the penitentiary status, and 264 thousand 844 persons with the status of convicts exited in the same period. It was announced that the number of convicts who were in the 12-17 age group at the time they entered the penitentiary institutions was 1,373. (One day)

Serhat News

Translator: Akif Coşkun