Konya Central Prison within the Crime and Punishment System (1880-1922)

Abstract

With the age of enlightenment, there was a transformation in the punishment of criminals, and the understanding that human beings were valuable and that their physical integrity should be protected was accepted. Before this decision was taken, executions such as dismemberment of the body, amputation of limbs, guillotine and, in its mildest form, execution, were carried out in front of the public for many years in the punishment of criminals. However, with the French Revolution, human rights and freedoms gained a new dimension, and it was deemed more appropriate for the individual who committed a crime to be isolated from society and rehabilitated in prisons, rather than being killed or tortured. The Ottoman Empire, which had to follow all the developments in the West, started to establish prisons in the country almost simultaneously. In this context, Konya central prison is important in terms of showing how the crime and punishment system progressed in Anatolia in the last period of the Ottoman Empire. In this study, the Prime Ministry Ottoman Archives were used as the main source and the prison system of the period was tried to be illuminated in the light of available documents.