Adalet Dergisi

Öz

The punishment of a person who has committed a crime is very important in terms of ensuring and protecting social peace and reconciliation. One of the purposes of punishment is the melioration of the culprit. One of the penalties foreseen to ensure the melioration of the culprit is imprisonment. It is seen that the prisons, the institution where the prison sentence is fulfilled, have changed and developed in the historical process of the Ottoman Empire. Prisons were also affected by the westernization movement that started with the Tanzimat Era. In the Ottoman Empire, where Islamic law was applied, which paid great attention to the rights of the prisoners, along with the change in the Tanzimat process, the prison reform was put into practice with the pressure of the western states. Later, in the İttihat and Terakki administration, this reform was considered important and maximum effort was made to implement it. Although it is open to debate whether this reform was successful or not, it is clear that important regulations have been made on the rights of prisoners. In this study, the subject of prisoners' rights in the Ottoman Empire will be examined considering the last years of the Ottoman Empire and especially in the post-Tanzimat period. In the light of the regulations and archive documents made in this period, the development of the rights of the prisoners and the implementation of the regulations will be tried to be explained..