Sentence Execution Calculation 2026 — Time to Serve and Conditional Release

Execution law keeps changing through provisional articles. According to the enactment table on mevzuat.gov.tr, Law No. 5275 has been amended sixteen times since 15 April 2020, twice through annulments by the Constitutional Court. Nine of these amendments touched the provisional articles. The main amending laws are Laws No. 7242, 7456, 7550, 7571 and 7593.

The post-2020 changes that the public often calls an "amnesty" (Laws No. 7242, 7456 and 7571) are not, technically, a general or special amnesty. They are changes to the execution regime. A 10-year prison sentence imposed by the court still appears as 10 years on the criminal record. What changes is the time the person actually spends in prison, the conditions for moving from a closed to an open institution and the supervised release periods.

This also answers the familiar question: "My friend got 5 years, served 1 and was released. Why am I serving 3?" Each sentence is calculated separately, based on the offense date, the type of offense and the prisoner's personal circumstances.

The offense date is the core of any execution calculation, and of our calculator. For the rules on conditional release, suspended sentences and recidivism, what counts is the day the offense was committed. If these rules change against the offender after that day, the old law applies. If they change in the offender's favor, the new law applies (TCK Art. 7/2-3). Other execution regime rules, such as transfer to an open institution and serving a sentence at home, apply immediately once they enter into force (TCK Art. 7/3). However, the legislature can tie them to the offense date through a transitional provision (e.g. Provisional Arts. 6, 10/6 and 11).

Three milestone dates cut the Turkish execution system into distinct periods:

A. The 30 March 2020 Milestone (Law No. 7242)

Enacted during the COVID-19 pandemic, this law reshaped the core of the execution system. It lowered the conditional release rate for general offenses from 2/3 to 1/2 (one half). Because the change favors offenders, it also applies to offenses committed before it. It also extended supervised release to 3 years for offenses committed up to and including 30 March 2020, with exceptions (Provisional Art. 6/1).

B. The 31 July 2023 Milestone (Law No. 7456 / Provisional Art. 10)

In its original form, this provisional article gave prisoners who were in a closed institution on 31 July 2023, except those convicted of excluded offenses, the right to transfer early to an open institution and to begin supervised release three years early. Prisoners whose execution had been deferred or suspended on that date were also covered. Of those already in open institutions, only prisoners held there under Provisional Art. 9/6 on that date benefited. Prisoners serving their sentence in full because their conditional release had been revoked were excluded. Law No. 7571 both widened and narrowed the rule.

C. December 2025: The 11th Judicial Package (Law No. 7571)

The 11th Judicial Package entered into force on 25 December 2025. It made the following changes:

• Provisional Art. 10/6 now applies to prisoners held for offenses committed on or before 31 July 2023, other than excluded offenses. The three-year period is unchanged.
• Subparagraphs (d), (e) and (f) of Art. 82/1 on intentional killing, killings caused by earthquakes, and TCK 102, 103 and 104/2-3 have been excluded. For these offenses there is no early transfer to an open institution and no early supervised release. The general conditional release rules apply.
• The rule is now tied to the offense date. Before Law No. 7571, the 1st Criminal Chamber of the Court of Cassation had upheld the refusal of the benefit to a prisoner who was outside the institution on supervised release on 31 July 2023 and was returned to an institution on 16 August 2023 following an aggregation decision (Docket No. 2024/7717, Decision No. 2026/2539; request for reversal in the interest of the law rejected). The law does not separately say how the article applies when an aggregation includes a sentence for an offense committed after 31 July 2023. Each aggregated sentence keeps its separate existence (Law No. 5275, Art. 99/1), and each case has to be assessed on its own facts.

Note: Our execution calculator takes these transitional provisions into account based on the offense date you enter.

When a court sentences someone to 10 years in prison, that person does not spend the full 10 years inside. If the prisoner shows "good conduct," the state releases them after a set share of the sentence has been served, with the aim of bringing them back into society. This is called conditional release.

The rate that applies depends directly on the type of offense:

Rate of 1/2 (General Offenses)

For standard offenses such as theft, fraud, insult, threats and negligent injury, half of the sentence is served. (For example, someone sentenced to 6 years becomes eligible for conditional release after 3 years.)

Rate of 2/3 (Serious Offenses and Repeat Offenders)

This rate applies to intentional killing (TCK Arts. 81–83), injury aggravated by its consequences (87/2-d), torture and torment (94–96), simple sexual assault (102/1), sexual intercourse with a minor (104/1), sexual harassment (105), offenses against privacy (132–138), offenses against state secrets and espionage (326–339), offenses under Law No. 2937 on the State Intelligence Services and the National Intelligence Organization (MİT), offenses committed as part of an organization's activities (Art. 107/4) and first recidivism (Art. 108/1-d) (Law No. 5275, Art. 107/2).

Rate of 3/4 (Exceptional and Terrorist Offenses)

This rate applies to the manufacture of and trade in narcotic or stimulant substances (TCK 188) committed on or after 28 June 2014, aggravated sexual assault (102/2), sexual abuse of children (103) and 104/2-3 (Law No. 5275, Art. 108/9), terrorist offenses (Anti-Terror Law (TMK) Art. 17) and second recidivism (Art. 108/3). Three quarters of the sentence is served before conditional release, and time spent in an open institution and on supervised release counts toward it. For juvenile prisoners, the rate for these offenses is 2/3.

Main Situations Where There Is No Conditional Release

The following cannot benefit from conditional release: prisoners sentenced to aggravated life imprisonment for terrorist offenses (TMK Art. 17), and prisoners sentenced to aggravated life imprisonment for offenses against state security, the constitutional order and national defense (TCK 302–325) committed as part of an organization's activities (Law No. 5275, Art. 107/16). There is also no conditional release in these cases:

• imprisonment converted from a judicial fine (Art. 106/9);
• the same sentence after conditional release has been revoked (Art. 107/13);
• terrorism convicts who are convicted of escape or riot, who receive cell confinement three times, or who commit a new terrorist offense after the judgment becomes final (TMK Art. 17/2-3).

Second-time repeat offenders, however, have had access to conditional release since Law No. 7550 (2025). For fixed-term imprisonment, their rate is 3/4 (Art. 108/3).

The Turkish system divides prisons into two types by security level: closed and open. Closed institutions have physical barriers against escape and external security staff, and some of them are high-security (Law No. 5275, Arts. 8–9). Open institutions have no external security and feel more like a "campus" or "workshop." Prisoners work during the day and return to their wards in the evening, and leave and telephone rights are much broader.

Transfer to an open institution is an important step for a prisoner in a closed institution, but it is not automatic. Under the Regulation on Transfer to Open Penal Institutions, the rule is as follows.

Some sentences start directly in an open institution: prison sentences totaling up to three years for intentional offenses, and up to five years for negligent offenses, except in the cases listed in Art. 14/2. Any other prisoner must show good conduct to be transferred. Under Art. 6/1-a of the Regulation, the prisoner must also meet two conditions together:

• they must have spent one month in the institution if the total sentence is under ten years, or one tenth of the sentence if it is ten years or more; and
• seven years or less must remain until conditional release.

Shorter remaining periods apply to some offenses. For TCK 142, 148, 149, 188 and 190, less than five years must remain. For TCK 102–103 and certain offenses against a spouse, less than three years must remain (Art. 6/2). For life imprisonment, the period is five years (Art. 6/1-b). Prisoners serving aggravated life imprisonment cannot transfer to an open institution (Art. 8/1-a). Prisoners in high-security institutions can transfer once they have served one third of their sentence there and three years remain until conditional release (Art. 6/1-c). Prisoners convicted of terrorist or organized-crime offenses can transfer only through the routes in Art. 6/2-c and 6/2-ç (Art. 8/1-ç).

Worked Example:

A prisoner sentenced to 8 years for aggravated theft (TCK 142):

• The conditional release rate is 1/2, so conditional release comes after 4 years.
• Because the total sentence is under ten years, one month in the institution is enough. For aggravated theft, less than five years must remain until conditional release (Art. 6/2-a), and in this case only four years remain from the outset.
• With a good conduct decision, this prisoner can transfer to an open institution on day 30.
• A separate rule: if the offense was committed on or after 4 June 2025, one tenth of the time until conditional release (147 days in this example) must be spent in a penal institution before supervised release can begin (Art. 105/A/1). Time spent in an open institution also counts.

Caution: Serving the required time is not enough on its own to move to an open prison. The prisoner must also receive a good conduct decision from the Administration and Observation Board. Disciplinary penalties can delay the good conduct assessment and the transfer. A prisoner who has received five or more cell confinement penalties in total cannot transfer to an open institution until one year has passed since the last penalty was lifted (Regulation Art. 8/1-c).

Under supervised release, the prisoner leaves prison completely and returns to civilian life some time before the conditional release date. Under the base rule, this happens one year before that date (Law No. 5275, Art. 105/A/1). The prisoner remains subject to certain obligations, such as reporting to sign in, attending seminars, doing unpaid community service or wearing an electronic ankle monitor.

As a general rule, supervised release begins one year before conditional release (Art. 105/A/1). For offenses committed up to 30 March 2020, the period is three years, with exceptions (Provisional Art. 6/1). For offenses committed on or before 31 July 2023, Provisional Art. 10/6 (introduced by Law No. 7456 and amended by Law No. 7571) brings supervised release forward by a further three years. Excluded offenses do not benefit, and the prisoner must stay at least three months in an open institution. Depending on the offense date, supervised release may therefore begin four, or even six, years before conditional release.

Special Cases: Illness and Motherhood

Under the "social state" principle, the legal system gives positive discrimination to certain disadvantaged groups:

Female prisoners with a child aged 0–6

The conditional release rate does not change. Supervised release may begin two years before conditional release (Art. 105/A/3-a). For offenses committed up to 30 March 2020, it may begin four years before, with exceptions (Provisional Art. 6/2-a).

Serious illness, disability or old-age frailty

Some prisoners cannot manage daily life on their own in prison because of serious illness or disability. If such a prisoner poses no serious and concrete danger to public safety, execution of the sentence may be deferred (Art. 16/6; the Chief Public Prosecutor's Office decides). Alternatively, except in cases of aggravated life imprisonment, the sentence may be served at home (Art. 110/3). A prisoner who cannot manage life on their own because of serious illness, disability or old-age frailty may begin supervised release three years before conditional release (Art. 105/A/3-b). This requires a report approved by the Council of Forensic Medicine.

Caution: A prisoner on supervised release may fail to report to the probation directorate within five days, persistently breach their obligations or ask to return to the institution. In any of these cases, the execution judge orders that the rest of the sentence up to the conditional release date be served in an open institution (Law No. 5275, Art. 105/A/6). The prisoner may also be sent to an open institution if a public prosecution is brought against them for an intentional offense carrying a minimum sentence of one year's imprisonment or more. If that case ends in acquittal, dismissal or discontinuance, supervised release continues (Art. 105/A/7).

Once the judgment becomes final, the Chief Public Prosecutor's Office issues a müddetname for the execution of the sentence. This document calculates the conditional release rate, the transitional provisions tied to the offense date and the credit for time already served. It shows the dates of admission, conditional release and full-term release. Where the müddetname shows them, the dates for transfer to an open institution and for supervised release are also based on this calculation.

The rate, the credit and the transitional provisions in a müddetname can all contain errors. The main points to check are:

• An offense covered by Provisional Art. 10/6 (open-institution transfer and supervised release three years early) may have been calculated as if it were an excluded offense.
• Days spent in police custody and pretrial detention (TCK Art. 63), or half of the time spent under house arrest (Code of Criminal Procedure (CMK) Art. 109/6), may have been under-credited.
• The rule that each day spent in the institution before age 15 or 18 counts as two or three days for conditional release (Art. 107/5; Provisional Art. 6/4) may have been overlooked.
• The scope of the Provisional Art. 10/6 entitlement may have been set up incorrectly in an aggregation.

If the dates in the müddetname may be wrong, or there is doubt about how the sentence was calculated, the execution judge can be asked for a decision (Law No. 5275, Art. 98/1-b). For how to read a müddetname, the 5 key dates in it and common calculation errors, see our müddetname calculation guide.

The calculator's result is preliminary information. Until it has been compared with the dates in the official müddetname, it is only an estimate. Case-specific factors, such as credit for time served, aggregation, recidivism and provisions more favorable to the offender, can change the dates. The topics below are situations in which it may be worth having a lawyer review the case.

Topics covered in a consultation with Mr. İlme

1. Recalculating the müddetname

The müddetname is recalculated using the statutory conditional release rates and the rules on credit and recidivism. If there is doubt about how the sentence to be served was calculated, the execution judge can be asked for a decision (Law No. 5275, Art. 98/1-b). This application is not subject to any time limit and does not automatically suspend execution.

2. Reviewing the aggregation decision

If there is more than one final sentence, an aggregation decision is requested from the execution judge so that conditional release can be applied (Law No. 5275, Art. 99). The review checks three things: whether each sentence was calculated at its own rate, whether recidivism was applied only to the relevant sentence, and how Provisional Art. 10/6 was applied. An aggregation decision can be challenged by objection (Law No. 5275, Art. 101/3). The objection must be filed within two weeks of the day the decision became known (CMK Art. 268).

3. Objecting to Good Conduct Decisions (Administration and Observation Board)

Even after the conditional release period has been served, release is delayed if the administration and observation board does not issue a good conduct decision. A complaint against the board's decision can be filed with the execution judge (Law No. 4675 on Execution Judgeships, Art. 5). The judge's decision can then be challenged by objection before the Heavy Penal Court (Ağır Ceza Mahkemesi) (Law No. 4675, Art. 6). We prepare applications against decisions that rest on abstract reasoning.

4. People living abroad

For people living abroad who have a final sentence in Türkiye, the consultation can cover matters such as the limitation period for executing the sentence (TCK Art. 68) and criminal record procedures. The consultation can be held online.

Deadlines are short, and timing matters

Timing matters in execution law. The deadlines for complaints and objections are short (Law No. 4675, Arts. 5–6). A credit request that is never made, or a badly structured aggregation decision, can lengthen the time spent in the institution.

Consultations take place at the office in Yalova or online. You can run your basic calculation with the calculator and book an appointment for an assessment of your own case.

You can consult Mr. İlme about a review of your case file, deferral or interruption of execution (Law No. 5275, Arts. 16–17), transfer to an open institution and applications concerning calculation errors in the müddetname.

Step-by-step numerical example: 10 years' imprisonment for drug trafficking (TCK Art. 188)

Sentence imposed: 10 years' imprisonment. Offense: drug trafficking (TCK Art. 188). Offense date and start of execution: 1 March 2026. No recidivism, no credit. Under Law No. 5275, Art. 108/9, the conditional release rate is 3/4:

1. Total sentence in days

1 March 2026 – 1 March 2036 = 3,653 days (years are counted by the calendar)

2. Time to serve (conditional release)

3,653 × 3/4 = 2,740 days (≈ 7 years 6 months)

3. Time in a closed institution (Regulation Art. 6)

The total sentence is ten years, so one tenth of the sentence (366 days) must be spent in the institution. For drug trafficking, less than five years must also remain until conditional release (Art. 6/2-a). Transfer to an open institution: day 915 (≈ 2 years 6 months)

4. Open institution and supervised release

In the open institution: 2,740 − 915 − 365 = 1,460 days (≈ 4 years). The last 365 days are spent on supervised release (Art. 105/A/1). The requirement added by Law No. 7550 to spend at least 274 days in an institution is already met.

• In a closed institution: 915 days
• Conditional release: day 2,740
• Full-term release: day 3,653

Note: This is the standard scenario for drug trafficking. Recidivism and credit for time served change the conditional release date. Being a female prisoner with a child aged 0–6, or having a serious illness, changes when supervised release begins. For adults, age does not change the rate. The calculator takes these factors into account.

Law No. 5275: Summary Table of Key Articles

For the full texts: mevzuat.gov.tr, Law No. 5275, Court of Cassation decision search, General Directorate of Prisons and Detention Houses, Constitutional Court (individual application case law).

Execution Calculation for Sexual Offenses (TCK Arts. 102, 103, 104)

For sexual assault, sexual abuse of children and sexual intercourse with a minor, the conditional release rate depends on the paragraph of the article and the offense date. Some of the transitional benefits do not apply to these offenses:

• Conditional release rate: 3/4 for aggravated sexual assault (102/2), sexual abuse of children (103) and 104/2-3 (Law No. 5275, Art. 108/9). The rate is 2/3 for offenses committed before 28 June 2014 (Provisional Art. 9/4). For simple sexual assault (102/1), 104/1 and sexual harassment (105), the rate is 2/3 (Art. 107/2-d). On a 10-year sentence at 3/4, conditional release comes after 7.5 years.
• Supervised release: begins one year before conditional release (Art. 105/A/1). It begins two years before for a woman with a child aged 0–6, and three years before for a prisoner who cannot manage life on their own because of serious illness, disability or old-age frailty (Art. 105/A/3). The Provisional Art. 6/1-2 extensions for offenses committed up to 30 March 2020 do not apply to Arts. 102–105. For 104/1 and 105 offenses committed on or before 31 July 2023, Provisional Art. 10/6 brings the date forward by three years (see below). The juvenile day count (Provisional Art. 6/4) does apply.
• Effect of the 11th Judicial Package (December 2025): TCK 102, 103 and 104/2-3 have been excluded from the Provisional Art. 10/6 rule on early transfer to an open institution and supervised release three years early. The general conditional release and supervised release rules apply to them. 104/1 and 105 remain within the rule.
• Recidivism: recidivism does not raise the rate for offenses that already carry 3/4 (Art. 108/1). For simple sexual assault, a first recidivism leaves the rate at 2/3, and a second recidivism raises it to 3/4 (Art. 108/3). A repeat offender is also given a supervision period of at least one year after the sentence ends (Art. 108/4).

Practical example: Take an 8-year sentence for aggravated sexual assault (TCK Art. 102/2) committed on or after 28 June 2014. The rate is 3/4, so conditional release comes after 6 years, and Provisional Art. 10/6 does not apply. If the same sentence was imposed for simple sexual assault (102/1), the rate is 2/3, giving 5 years 4 months. The calculator applies this distinction.

For more complex situations, such as those turning on the victim's age category, the type of act or an aggregation, book a consultation with a lawyer.

Related Legal Templates (For Information Only)

In line with the advertising rules of the Union of Turkish Bar Associations (TBB), the template petitions below are for general information only. For a specific case, they should be adapted together with your lawyer.

• Sample Petition Objecting to a Müddetname: template petition to the execution judge under Law No. 5275, Arts. 98–101.
• Sample Petition to Resolve an Aggregation: sample petition on errors in an aggregation decision, with a request for correction.
• 11th Judicial Package Provisional Art. 10 Interpretation Table: the amendment made by Law No. 7571, covering scope, the former and current texts, and Court of Cassation decisions.
• Execution Judge Application Template: the general application process, types of request, jurisdiction and deadlines.
• Sample Criminal Appeal (İstinaf) Petition: challenging a judgment before it becomes final, with a template for the 2-week istinaf window.
• Guide to the İstinaf (Regional Appeal) Remedy: deadlines, filing procedure and the Regional Court of Appeal (BAM) process in a comprehensive guide.