By Ilker Girit
ISTANBUL (AA) – Turkey’s prison population rose by nearly 12 percent in 2015, the Turkish Statistical Institute said Friday.
The number of prisoners stood at 177,262 by the year’s end, an 11.7 percent rise on 12 months earlier. Most prisoners — 85.4 percent — were serving sentences with the remainder awaiting trial in custody.
Women made up 3.7 percent of the prison population.
The report said the population had increased steadily from 172 prisoners per 100,000 of population in 2011 to 225 per 100,000 by 2015.
The institute’s figures showed most convicts — 17.8 percent — had been jailed for theft while 14.1 percent had been convicted of assault. Nearly 5 percent were convicted of murder.
According to Justice Ministry data obtained by Anadolu Agency in the summer, there were 213,499 prisoners in jail on Aug. 16. At that time, the ministry had announced plans to release up to 38,000 prisoners to clear space for the tens of thousands arrested over alleged involvement in the July 15 coup attempt.
