Türkiye tops Europe in number of inmates

European jails housed a total of 1.04 million inmates, with Türkiye leading the list at 348,265, followed by England and Wales with 81,806, France with 72,294, Poland with 71,228 and Germany with 58,098 inmates, according to the Council of Europe’s 2023 prison report.

Other notable figures included Georgia at 256, Azerbaijan at 244, Moldova at 242, Hungary at 211 and Slovakia at 183 inmates.

Türkiye ranks first in ratio of prisoners per staff

As of Jan. 31, 2023, Türkiye (4.5) again tops the list of prison administrations with the highest ratio of inmates to staff.

Türkiye is followed by North Macedonia (2.7), Georgia (2.7), Serbia (2.6), Cyprus (2.6), Poland (2.5), Moldova (2.5). 2.4), Greece (2.4), Spain (2.2) and Hungary (2.2).

Türkiye demonstrated the highest percentage change in the number of prisoners and detainees among countries with a population exceeding 500,000, with a 439% increase from 2005 to 2023.

Occupancy rate in prisons

Greek Cyprus ranked first in the occupancy rate of prisons according to their capacities.

Accordingly, based on the current capacity of 100 inmates, the countries exceeding this capacity are listed as follows: Cyprus (166 prisoners per 100 beds), Romania (120), France (119), Belgium (115), Hungary (112), Italy (109) and Slovenia (107).

The prison population density was high in five other countries: Greece (103), Sweden (102), North Macedonia (101), Croatia (101) and Türkiye (100) were among the top five.

Twit: With 348,265 prisoners, Türkiye has the highest number of inmates among the Council of Europe member states