The people behind the numbers: Bringing the reality of Turkish prisons to light

A statistic alone does not change society Originally published on Global Voices Silivri Prison in Turkey. Image from Wikimedia Commons . CC BY-SA 4.0 . This article was produced by Ahmet Kavruk from the group Gündem Hapishane in Türkiye through the Digital Spark granting scheme, as part of the Regional Support Mechanism EECA project. It was implemented by the Metamorphosis Foundation and TechSoup , in partnership with CIVICUS and under the Digital Democracy Initiative (DDI) that covers the Global South. It is being published on Global Voices as part of a content-sharing agreement. In late 2025, prisons in Türkiye became more visible than they had been in a long time. The 11th Judicial Package , a legislative reform that became law in December, was debated for days on television, in newspapers, and on social media. Sentencing regulations, claims of early release, and changes to the penal system were at the forefront of public discourse. However, as the debates intensified , another issue came to light: Many people discussing the same topic did not actually have the same information. Having worked in human rights and journalism for over a decade, I repeatedly heard similar questions from those around me during this process. There was significant confusion about who the legislation would cover, what changes it would bring about, and whether it would solve the fundamental problems in prisons. But I noticed something during this debate: prisons are only discussed when a new sentencing regulation is on the agenda, and the debates mostly revolve around well-known individuals or high-profile political cases. Meanwhile, the vast majority of this closed industry, which houses hundreds of thousands of people, remains invisible. That’s where the idea for our Substack newsletter Prison Agenda (Gündem Hapishane) came from. I wanted to create an independent publication that would contribute to discussions about prisons and prisoners’ human rights, not just in times of crisis but from a human rights perspective based on reliable, up-to-date information. I shared this idea with my colleague Tutku Sönmez , and since we both recognized the need, we decided to take action together. Turning numbers into human stories A prison in Sinop, Turkey. Image from Wikimedia Commons . CC BY 2.0 . On January 1, 2026, Tutku and I launched the Prison Agenda. Rather than producing new news, our goal was to translate information that was already publicly available but scattered, technical, and difficult to access into a language that everyone could understand. Every month, we review official statistics, parliamentary commission minutes, Council of Europe reports, EuroPris data, and academic research. We then simplify, verify, and convert these into infographics, data visualizations, and short analyses using digital design tools. We sometimes refer to this process as “rights-based translation,” as our focus is on making existing information visible and accessible rather than generating new knowledge. The unseen ‘high needs’ prisoners Türkiye currently has the largest prison population in Europe, with the number of prisoners more than doubling over the last decade. However, this figure is often presented as nothing more than a cold statistic. Our aim is to remind people that a human being stands behind every number. Take, for example, young children living in prison with their mothers, foreign nationals who cannot access justice mechanisms because they do not speak Turkish, women who cannot benefit from educational and social activities because of staff shortages, and elderly and disabled prisoners who struggle to access healthcare. These groups often do not even make it into the footnotes of official reports. Yet, from a human rights perspective, these are precisely the individuals who should be the most visible. In every piece of content we produce, we strive to reduce this invisibility, even if only slightly, by referencing international standards such as the Bangkok Rules and the Mandela Rules , which establish international baselines for prison standards and the treatment of inmates. A greater impact When we launched the project, our main goal was to create a reliable and sustainable source of information, rather than to reach a large audience. We weren’t sure how the public would respond to regular publications on prisons, a topic which typically receives limited public attention. However, the rapid growth of our subscriber base within a short time showed us that the need was far greater than we had expected. In the first six months, we have received 435 subscribers for our Turkish and English newsletters. Our newsletters began to serve as an important reference source for journalists, human rights advocates, academics and civil society workers. Over time, we have diversified our work, beginning to produce three regular publications: The News Bulletin, which summarises key developments; the Data Bulletin , which analyzes official statistics to highlight trends; and the Parliamentary Monitoring Bulletin , through which we closely track prison-related legislative activities in the Grand National Assembly of Türkiye . We also publish thematic articles focusing on vulnerable groups to mark important dates such as Pride Month, World Refugee Day, International Women’s Day and the Day of Solidarity with Victims of Torture. The challenges and future of independent publishing Needless to say, working in this field is not easy. Prisons are, by their very nature, closed-off institutions that are difficult to oversee. Access to information is limited, official data is fragmented, and bureaucratic processes are slow. Furthermore, addressing these sensitive issues in a political climate where civil society is under pressure involves managing the risk of encountering legal or technical obstacles at any time. Securing financial resources to sustain independent journalism is another challenge. Despite this, Prison Agenda taught me something important about journalism. I used to think that the fundamental role of journalism was to produce information. Today, however, I believe there is another responsibility that is just as important: Transforming complex information into information that people can actually use. Because a statistic alone does not change society. But when we can see the human stories behind that statistic, we can begin to talk about human rights violations and solutions. In the coming period, as we strengthen our Turkish-language publications, we also intend to develop our English-language newsletter further, in order to more effectively connect civil society initiatives in Türkiye with international human rights networks. No matter how physically distant prisons may be from society, the rights of those living inside them are universal. We believe that access to information is a fundamental right, not a privilege. Written by GV Central Asia and Caucasus