There has been a huge increase in prison numbers in Turkiye in recent years while many people who are seen as potential criminals are put into prison without serious evidence and without a fair trial.

Lawyers warning that seeing prisons as the only measure is increasing victimizations while there is no serious work to ensure social peace and prevent crimes.

The statement of the undersecretary of the Turkish Ministry of Justice, Kenan İpek, who confirmed that more than fifty prisons were built, and the remarks of AK Party Deputy Yusuf Başer likened the prisons to a smokeless factory, shows that the government considers prisons and imprisoning people as the only solution.

Lawyers referring to issues such as the increase in prisons, the rate of occupancy in prisons, and the application of punitive measures to prevent crime, said would lead to serious social problems in Turkiye.

"The increase of prisons is a serious problem"

Lawyer Osman Yurt who spoke to ILKHA correspondent on the subject stated that there is a major increase in prisons in recent years.

"It is obvious that there are serious problems with prisons in Turkiye. Because the number prisons have increased dramatically since 10-15 years. Suddenly a physical serious problem arose. There are problems and grievances occurred by this," said Osman Yurt.

"Keeping people in prison doesn't solve problems"

Emphasizing that punishment is not enough alone for the prevention of crime, Yurt said: "When we discuss in the direction of philosophy of law, of course, the punishment alone is not enough to prevent crime. This requires further measures. So, keeping people in prison does not solve the problems."

Lawyer Yurt stated that the prison is a measure and is used in Turkiye in a very extreme way, which leads problems. "We agree that replicating the number of prisons is not enough to prevent the crime. However, at this point, we need to accept that there is not enough work to solve this problem."

"Are these processes really focused on preventing a crime, or are they moving with a grudge, rage instead?" Yurt asked and continued as:  said: "This is controversial indeed. Filling people up in prison can sometimes lead to even boosting the crime instead of preventing the crime." (Mehmet Fatih Akgül -ILKHA)