There was a weird thing in England that if you were found not guilty and released from prison, you’d have to pay the prison boarding costs because you had no right to be there in the first place
If I saw an article with the title
UK man has $80,000 room and board bill from prison after being found not guilty of murder.
I’d be looking to see if it was from the onion.
Probably to regain the lost funds into the imprisonment fund from the compensation fund for wrongful imprisonment. Might be more of a dumb than an evil thing.
No, it’s evil.
Another person replied with a real story where it happened. They also did this to the guy wrongfully imprisoned 25 years
He explained that his compensation was also calculated on the assumption that he would never have worked and would have received benefits.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cwy31pk1w0lo
Edit: And I could see maybe its hard to assume he’d become a lawyer or Dr with high wages, but no job with only benefits, and then room and board subtracted? Savage.
I’ve lived in the UK my whole life and I’ve never heard of this. I’m going to have to ask for a source because it really does sound like an urban myth.
This was real until very recently.
Compensation for the wrongly convicted could be reduced by the savings on room and board you get for being locked up. Given how much money people spend on rent in the UK, this could massively reduce the compensation received.
Same thing for Germany.
Someone is currently suing the Bavarian government for 750,000€ for 13 years of wrong imprisonment (he only received 400,000€ in damages, or 75€ per day).
Now the government is demanding 100,000€ back - 50,000€ for food and accomodation and 50,000€ for the total wage he received from mandatory prison labor.
Washington may be the most expensive state to be behind bars, as it charges up to $100 per day just for room and board, according to Lauren-Brooke Eisen, senior counsel at New York University’s Brennan Center for Justice. Maine, which charges around $80 per day, may be the second most expensive, she added, but it’s not clear because many states don’t report the exact amounts. “Most states don’t provide the exact amount; they call for ‘full cost of incarceration’ or ‘a reasonable amount,'” Eisen told Truthdig. “In reality, these states which don’t provide real numbers may demand the steepest already very difficult for people with a criminal record to get a job, even if they committed a nonviolent crime, so steep fees can add to their struggles,” she said.