Injustices

One of the worst injustices that currently happens in Western jurisprudence is wrongly convicting someone of a crime and locking them up.  That's why I'm such a fan of The Innocence Project.

Yes, this story happened in Britain, but is it so far-fetched that you cannot see it happening in the USA?

A British man who spent 17 years behind bars after being wrongly convicted of rape may owe the U.K. Prison Service thousands of pounds for "board and lodging," the Manchester Evening News reported.

Andy Malkinson, 57, was found guilty in 2003 of raping a woman in Salford, England. This week, a Court of Appeal exonerated him and ruled that DNA evidence proved another man was responsible.

Malkinson is set to receive financial compensation for his wrongful conviction, but the Ministry of Justice can take out a portion of the money and give it to the Prison Service because it provided food and shelter during his stay.

Malkinson said the government implemented the archaic rule after the Prison Service lobbied for the change in the early 2000s.

"The result is that even if you fight tooth and nail and gain compensation, you then have to pay the prison service a large chunk of that for so-called 'board and lodgings', which is so abhorrent to me," Malkinson told BBC 4. "I am sickened by it."

As well he should be.  

The article continues by stating that such payments are determined on a case-by-case basis and he may well pay nothing, but such a law is still an abomination.  When society locks up a person, that person is in "custody"--which means "care", which means society pays for room and board incurred by the incarceration.  What possible legitimate reason could there by for the stupid law that's rubbing salt in Mr. Malkinson's 17-year-old open wound?