Prison Agenda #1
Issue #1: Who We Are and What We Do
Hello, I’m Ahmet.
Welcome to the first issue of Prison Agenda.
For a long time, I have been regularly following over 20 newsletters a month across various fields. However, I felt there was a distinct lack of a comprehensive and regular newsletter covering prisons in Türkiye. For this reason, I decided to launch this project in January. To be honest, I hadn’t planned on introducing an English version so soon.
For more than a decade, I have been involved in various initiatives regarding prisons and prisoners’ rights in Türkiye, both as a volunteer and a professional. In recent years, prisons have become more visible and widely discussed in public debate than ever before, largely driven by the dynamics of Türkiye’s political and social agenda.
In this inaugural issue, rather than focusing on monthly updates, I would like to share the general framework of our work. Since March, Tutku and I have been running this project together, preparing all content as a two-person team.
Over the past five months, we have not only published our regular monthly updates but have also developed new quarterly bulletins. The first of these is the “Data Bulletin,” where we analyze statistics published by the General Directorate of Prisons and Detention Houses (CTE). The second is our monitoring bulletin, which tracks legislative and oversight activities related to prisons within the Grand National Assembly of Türkiye (TBMM).
In short, we will be publishing two of our Turkish newsletters in English on the same schedule. In the first half of each month, we will deliver a news bulletin covering current developments in Turkish prisons. Starting in June, we will also share up-to-date statistics and trends through the #DataBulletin, published every three months.
In addition to these, we will prepare special dossiers, infographics, analyses, and articles to mark significant dates and occasions.
However, our vision goes beyond just reporting on Türkiye. Over time, we aim to monitor structural shifts, current data, and noteworthy analyses within the penal systems of different countries. In doing so, we hope to introduce Türkiye’s situation to our international readers while bringing global developments to our audience in Türkiye.
If we can make even a small positive contribution to the ongoing discussions and efforts in this field, we will consider our goal achieved.
Since this is our first issue, I have kept the introduction a bit long. In future issues, we will dive directly into developments and news.
See you again soon…
Prison Agenda is supported through the Digital Spark granting scheme, as part of the Regional Support Mechanism EECA project, implemented by Metamorphosis Foundation and TechSoup, in partnership with CIVICUS and under the Digital Democracy Initiative (DDI) that covers the Global South.