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Sex offenders may walk as lawmakers mull releasing one in three Turkish prisoners

Turkish women's rights groups have denounced a bill that would reduce sentences for sex offenders and other convicts to stem the spread of the novel coronavirus in prisons.
A Turkish police special forces officer stands guard in front of the Aliaga Prison and Courthouse complex in Izmir, Turkey October 12, 2018. REUTERS/Umit Bektas - RC1DC5DD0C60

ISTANBUL — As the coronavirus pandemic continues worldwide, Turkish authorities are drafting measures to reduce the nation’s prison population in an effort to stop the disease from spreading among inmates.

On Tuesday, lawmakers with Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party and the allied Nationalist Movement Party submitted a law proposal to opposition party members that would release about 100,000 of the nation’s 300,000 inmates, switching select convicts’ jail sentences to extended probation periods to relieve overcrowded penitentiaries.

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