Turkey’s prisons have recorded a quadrupling in annual inmate arrivals over the last 11 years, Sozcu newspaper reported , citing figures from the Turkish Statistical Institute (TUIK), Ahval reported.

A total of 281,605 people entered the country’s prisons in 2019, when TUIK recorded its latest data, compared to 74,404 people in 2009, it said.

The country has seen a surge in crimes over the last decade, including murder, theft, sexual abuse and drug-related offences, according to TUIK.

Imprisonment over sexual abuse during this time increased by 10-fold, registering at 5,800 in 2019, up from 562 in 2009, Sozcu said.

Meanwhile, theft-related incarcerations increased by seven fold during the same time while imprisonment over drug dealing increased by 11 times.

Turkey ranked second in the incarceration rate, the number of people in prison per 100,000 of population, with the United States at the top among OECD countries, according to a 2019 OECD report.

In 2019, the incarceration rate in Turkey was 430 prisoners per 100,000, according to TUIK.