Abstract

The Ottoman Empire's criminal justice practices has emerged as a consequence of the modernization efforts that started with the Tanzimat. In this process, as in all the provinces of the Empire, a prison was tried to be established in Thessaloniki, close to the examples in the West. Started in Thessaloniki in 1852, the efforts to establish a modern prison, which were accomplished in three stages. To begin with, a warehouse near the government office has been turned into a prison for criminals, and the thought of prison was abandoned since 1852. Later, the White Tower in 1870 and the Seven Towers in 1900 were converted into a prison, and with the continuous expansion works, it has been ensured that the criminals were gathered in one physically sufficient building. In the third stage, the prison was constantly inspected and reformed, since the end of 1906, the Tevkifhane (Detention House) opened and the convicts and detainees have separated from each other in 1907. After the occupation of the city by Greece in 1912, the Seven Towers, which have been established during the Ottoman period, have been used as a prison lacking the need for additional construction. In this study, the stages it has been go through within the framework of "prison reform" the establishment process of the Central Prison of Thessaloniki in the Ottoman period, and the situation of the prison and its convicts in the period from the time Thessaloniki was conquered by Greece to 1916 have examined on the basis of Ottoman archive documents.

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