Erdogan expands Turkey’s prison network

The Turkish government allocated 556 million lira (58 million euros) in the first quarter of 2021 for the construction of six new prisons, which will significantly increase Turkey’s already high incarceration rate.

Satellite imagery reveals construction on 131 prisons beginning between July 2016 and March 2021, with Turkish Ministry of Justice documents and press reports indicating nearly 100 additional facilities under consideration by Erdogan’s government.

The current rate of construction is more than double that in the four years before the failed coup—a time when mass arrests and political imprisonment in Turkey were already generating international alarm. Over that period, 64 prisons were observed under construction via satellite imagery.

There has been a record rise in the number of prisons constructed as well as the number of people who were put behind bars during the rule of the Justice and Development Party (AKP), main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) deputy Abdüllatif Şener earlier said.

Accusing the ruling AKP of building as many prisons since it first came to power in 2002 as were built from the founding of the Turkish Republic until then, Şener said: “There is not a single year in which you failed to build a prison, and you have constructed 141 prisons since 2014 alone.”

Currently, 357 out of every 100,000 people in Turkey are in prison; 274 816 of the prisoners are men, 11 720 are women, 1630 are children.

Mass detentions and arrests have been taking place in Turkey since a coup attempt in July 2016. The AKP government accuses the faith-based Gülen movement of masterminding the failed coup, although the movement strongly denies any involvement in the abortive putsch.

According to a statement from Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu on February 20, a total of 622,646 people have been the subject of investigation and 301,932 have been detained, while 96,000 others have been jailed due to alleged links to the Gulen movement since the failed coup. 

Critics accuse Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who embarked on the massive crackdown on the opposition after the coup attempt, of using the incident as a pretext to quash dissent.

Human Rights Watch says people alleged to have links to the Gulen movement is the largest group targeted by Erdogan.