This is just ... well, al... (16 Mar 2004)
This is just ... well, almost amusing. But in that "laugh because you don't know what else to do" way [via WhiteRose, source]
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?
An apology, maybe? Counselling? Champagne? Compensation? Well, if you're David Blunkett, the Labour Home Secretary, the choice is simple: you give them a big, fat bill for the cost of board and lodgings for the time they spent freeloading at Her Majesty's Pleasure in British prisons.
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.
Though now I come to think about it, there's a prison near White City I believe, and £3000/year is a lot cheaper than what I'm paying now. I wonder if they would consider renting?