The General Directorate of Prisons and Detention Houses as part of the Ministry of Justice released a statistic about the number of detainees and convicts imprisoned as of 31 January 2012.

According to the data, a total of 131,371 detainees and convicts are currently incarcerated in Turkish prisons, 2,360 of whom are children.

On 1 January 2011 the number of imprisoned detainees and convicts summed up to 122,449 - a number that increased by 8,868 people within the past twelve months.

Of the 131,371 prisoners in 2012, with 36,868 people more than a third of the total are in detention, 18,540 are detained while waiting for their sentences to be finalized and 75,909 are convicted inmates.

Only in January 2012, a total of 2,713 people were arrested and put behind bars. Projecting this ratio to the course of the year, the number of prisoners would increase by 32,556 people and reach a total of 163,873 by the end of the year.

Prisons overcrowded

According to the statistic of the General Directorate of Prisons and Detention Houses, the vast majority of 118,934 out of 131,317 prisoners was arrested and/or convicted on the grounds of "criminal offences".

8,671 prisoners were put behind bars due to "terror crimes". 2,200 people are in prison under allegations of "membership of a benefit-orientated criminal organization". For the group of the remaining 1,512 prisoners, the quality of crime was not known.

As of 31 January 2012, male prisoners outnumber female prisoners by factor 26: 124,229 men, 4,728 women and 2,360 children are currently kept in Turkish prisons. The statistic determined that the capacity of closed prisons is being exceeded by 12,773 persons. (EKN/VK)

31 Ocak 2012 itibariyle cezaevlerinde 124 bin 229 erkek, 4 bin 728 kadın ve 2 bin 360 çocuk tutuklu ve hükümlü bulunduğu ifade edilirken, kapalı cezaevlerinde 12 bin 773 kişilik kapasite fazlası olduğu belirtildi. (EKN/VK)