In terms of prison type, 122,619 people are held in lower-security open prisons and 310,901 in closed prisons with stricter security measures. Turkey has long struggled with prison overcrowding, with the number of inmates exceeding official capacity despite the expansion of the prison system. According to the Council of Europe’s 2025 Annual Penal Statistics on Prison Populations (SPACE I) report, Turkey had the highest prison population among the 51 prison administrations covered by the report.