Council of Europe warns of worsening prison overcrowding in Turkey
The Council of Europe’s anti-torture committee says Turkey’s prison population, which had been falling, is now rising sharply, deepening overcrowding problems.
The Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT) of the Council of Europe published two separate reports on its inspections of Turkish prisons in 2021 and 2024, both approved by Turkish officials. The 2021 visit examined conditions in thirteen police and gendarmerie sites and eight prisons, including two women’s facilities, during COVID-19 restrictions. The 2024 mission focused on four high-security prisons and also assessed the treatment of women, LGBTI+ detainees, and prisoners placed in solitary cells for administrative reasons.
While the earlier report highlighted a notable drop in the prison population, the newer assessment indicates that the decline has halted and inmate numbers have risen to the highest level among Council of Europe members. The CPT called on Turkish authorities to make reducing prison overcrowding a top priority and to tackle its underlying drivers. Additional CPT reports on psychiatric hospitals and foreign detainees are scheduled for release next week.
