Public order, crime, criminals, and prisons in Trabzon province (1876-1915)

At the begining of the 19th century, Ottoman Empire had gone into a modernization process, and lean on issues like crime, public order, and prisons, and had regulations that imply its change of view in such issues. As one of the the most concrete steps of these changes, following the declaration of Edict of Reform a process to build modern prisons had begun, and some of already existed 'mahpeses' had turned into prisons. Progressive steps like launching new law codes, especially penal code of law in 1858, founding modern police and military police organisations to secure internal safety show us the seriousness of the empire on the public order matters. After the declaration of the 2nd Constitutional Monarcy, as an effective part of the regiment, The Committe of Union and Progress had continued these regulations. Population movements and economical problems of this era had required these new regulations on public order, crime, and prisons. Studies that was done by The Committee of Union and Progress to gather statistical data about information of inmates in prisons was one of these regulations. The common purpose of all these actions were to maintain public order and to minimize internal security issues. As a result of these regulations Ottoman Empire had entered upon a uridical transformation process and meantime got face to face to various social, economical and political problems. All these problems had negative reflections in Trabzon province as much as around the Empire. While struggling with wars, the Empire also had tried to provide intranational public order, and peace and safety of people. In our study, previous studies on public order, crime, and prisons are evaluated with related archive documents. The effects of political and economical state of Ottoman Empire in between 1876 -1915 to public order, crime, and prisons of Trabzon province is tried to point out. For that purpose the acquired data on crime and criminals had evaluated in a causative context to the extend permitted by crime registers, and correspondences between Istanbul and the province. Abovesaid issues of public order are approached pursuant to formal correspondences and aggregative events that effect the public order of the province negatively are elaborated. Finally the issue of prisons as the adjunct of all these topics is evaluated with reference to query-explanation documents, roll call registers, and offical correspondences which give us information on inmates, prisoner counts, officers, problems enountered, physical conditions of the facilities.