Number of female prisoners increased by 113 percent in last six years: Turkish justice ministry

Umut Erdem – ANKARA

The number of women held in jails in Turkey has increased by 113 percent in the last six years, according to the Justice Ministry’s General Directorate of Prisons and Detention Houses. 

The ministry released the figures in response to an application by independent Ankara lawmaker Aylin Nazlıaka to the Prime Ministry Coordination Center (BİMER), in which she demanded to know the number of women in prisons in Turkey.

The number of convicted and jailed women in penal institutions was recorded at 4,539 as of Dec. 31, 2011, whereas the number increased to 6,403 in 2015, 8,291 in 2016, and was 9,662 as of June 30, the ministry said. 

Nazlıaka also in her application asked about the number of medical treatments undertaken in prison infirmaries.  

According to data from the Health Ministry, prison infirmaries across the country carried out a total of 49,612 treatments in 2012, but the figure increased to 96,841 in 2015, corresponding to a 95 percent increase in three years. 

This figure increased to 468,844 in 2016, and was 242,737 for the period covering January to May 2017. 

“When the figures prior to the July 15 [2016] coup attempt are analyzed, in the 2011-2015 period, meaning in the last four years, the number of adult women convicted and jailed had increased by 41 percent. This increase is 113 percent between 2011 and 2017,” she said.