(Innocent) locked up in jail for 25 years...That’ll be £80,000 please

[joeunderdog]

Full title---We locked you up in jail for 25 years and you were innocent all along? That’ll be £80,000 please

WHAT do you give someone who’s been proved innocent after spending the best part of their life behind bars, wrongfully convicted of a crime they didn’t commit?

snip

On Tuesday, Blunkett will fight in the Royal Courts of Justice in London for the right to charge victims of miscarriages of justice more than £3000 for every year they spent in jail while wrongly convicted. The logic is that the innocent man shouldn’t have been in prison eating free porridge and sleeping for nothing under regulation grey blankets.

snip

Paddy Hill was one of the Birmingham Six. He spent 16 years behind bars for the 1974 Birmingham pub bombings by the IRA. Hill now lives on a farm with his wife and children near Beith in Scotland. He has been charged £50,000 for living expenses by the Home Office.

It wasn’t until two years ago that Hill was finally awarded £960,000 in compensation. However, during the years since his release, while waiting for the pay-out, the government had given him advances of around £300,000. When his compensation came through, the £300,000 was taken back along with interest on the interim payments charged at 23% – that cost him a further £70,000.

more...
http://www.sundayherald.com/40592

[acmavm]

1. This in one of the most assinine, insane, screwed up things I've ever

heard of. First, they jail the guy for 25 years for something he didn't do, and then they have the unmitigated gall to bill him for the expenses they incurred because of their screwup. The next thing you know they'll be expecting prisoners, especially the innocently convicted to will them all their earthly belongs, including boby parts, so that the can get some of the money back that it took to house them while incarcerated. Hey, it's a miracle the Bush administration hasn't thought of this (yet).

[Melsky]

2. That is an outrgage

there is no way you can make up for the loss of freedom. It's insulting to charge someone for something they were unable to refuse.

[7th_Sephiroth]

3. what the FUCK?

this is total fucking bullshit

[bluestateguy]

4. Even Texas doesn't do anything that stupid

If it were up to me this guy would never have to work a day in his life again. He lost 25 years of his life in prison. He should be able to enjoy the rest of his life--at government expense--playing golf or doing whatever makes him happy, not having to bagging groceries or pumping gas to make ends meet.

[Fridays Child]

6. Chimpy is probably kicking himself for not thinking of it first.

[fedsron2us]

5. Gulag logic that would have made Stalin proud.

Just goes to show what a vindictive, penny pinching, mean spirited bunch of bastards rule Britain. Of course the aim is to discourage people from pursuing mis-carriage of justice cases. In the UK once convicted by the courts of a murder you would be far better off to admit to the crime even if you were innocent. You would spend far less time in prison.