Sentence Enforcement Law, Criminal Records and Archive Records

Sentence Enforcement Law and Prison Practices

In the enforcement process that begins when a criminal judgment becomes final, the regime to be applied is not determined solely by the amount of the sentence written in the judgment. The date of the offense and of the judgment, the nature of the conviction, finality, deduction of time served, recidivism, good conduct, temporary provisions and the joint enforcement of more than one judgment must each be examined separately.

The main procedures carried out in this scope are:

• Examining the sentence calculation sheet (müddetname), the release date upon completion of the sentence and the conditional release date
• Correcting an erroneous enforcement calculation and applications to the chief public prosecutor’s office
• Aggregating more than one conviction, concurrence of offenses and deduction of time served
• The more lenient law, adaptation proceedings and consequences of a final judgment that affect enforcement
• Resolving a doubt that arises in the interpretation or enforcement of a judgment
• The conditions of conditional release and the processes for revoking conditional release
• Applications for enforcement of the sentence by applying a probation measure
• Setting and changing probation obligations and allegations of violating them
• Applications against decisions lifting probation or returning the person to a closed penal institution
• Transfer to an open penal institution or return to a closed institution
• Reviewing good conduct decisions made by the administration and observation board
• A complaint to the enforcement judgeship against the rejection of a request for good conduct, transfer to an open institution or probation
• Objection to decisions of the enforcement judgeship before the High Criminal Court
• Requests to postpone or suspend enforcement
• Special situations concerning enforcement due to illness, disability, pregnancy, childbirth or age
• Assessing special enforcement methods such as weekend, nighttime or home enforcement
• Prison disciplinary penalties, the lifting of a disciplinary penalty and their effect on good conduct
• Transfer, referral, leave, visits, communication, education, health and other penal institution procedures
• Applications concerning a detainee’s or convict’s access to healthcare and conditions of enforcement
• Transfer of a convict to another country and enforcement consequences of foreign criminal judgments
• Ordinary and individual application routes for fundamental rights violations arising from enforcement procedures

Enforcement regulations may change over time, and some provisions may produce different results depending on the date of the offense, the judgment or finality. General “time served” tables on the internet should not be relied on; the judgment, the sentence calculation sheet and the person’s enforcement status must be examined together.

Sentence calculation, probation, conditional release and prison procedures are explained in detail on our page Sentence Enforcement Law, Probation and Prison Procedures.

Criminal Records, Archive Records and Restoration of Forfeited Rights

• Examining the accuracy of the criminal record
• Procedures for removing a record whose enforcement is complete from the criminal record
• The conditions for deleting an archive record
• Correcting an erroneous record or a record belonging to another person
• Records based on a foreign conviction
• A decision restoring forfeited rights
• Assessing consequences under civil service, license, tender, company management and other special laws
• The effect on the record of adaptation, a general amnesty, decriminalization or a Constitutional Court decision

Removal from the criminal record, deletion of the archive record and restoration of forfeited rights are not the same procedure. The authority to apply to and the conditions must be determined according to the existing record and the legal consequences of the conviction.