Unjust imprisonment, every eight hours a person is wrongfully arrested. Denmark also compensates a fraction of a day in prison

These days in Germany a justice reform project is being discussed that would make it automatic, in case of acquittal, for the prosecutor himself to claim compensation for the victim of wrongful imprisonment. Even public assistance centres would be set up for the victim of wrongful imprisonment and his reintegration into society. And legal costs would be paid by the state to accompany the victim of wrongful imprisonment in his claim for compensation. In Denmark, compensation for wrongful imprisonment is even awarded for a portion of a day, for a fraction of a day. So it can happen to be compensated even for only 10 minutes spent as an arrested person, being of course then found innocent.

And in Italy? A white paper on unjust imprisonment in Italy photographs a country where every eight hours a person is unjustly arrested. The phenomenon is described in the book 'Innocenti. Il libro bianco dell'ingiusta detenzione in Italia' (Giappichelli editore), written by journalists Benedetto Lattanzi and Valentino Maimone, founders of the association errori.giudiziari.com. Unjust detention refers to the pre-trial detention suffered by a suspect or a defendant who is later finally acquitted. The white paper combines data, analysis and true stories. In the last 30 years, 30,000 cases of wrongful imprisonment have been counted. And the state has spent almost one billion euros to compensate them. In the book, a representative sample of all wrongful imprisonment reparation orders in a single year, 2018, was taken into account. Almost 600 orders.

For which crimes do people end up in prison or under house arrest? "In first place are crimes against property, in particular robbery, extortion, theft,' Valentino Maimone explains. In second place are drug offences, and in third place are crimes against the person, ranging from murder to sexual violence'.

Stories that are real odysseys for those who stumble upon them. On average, how long does it take to see one's innocence proven? "We have calculated the period that passes from the moment one is arrested in pre-trial detention in prison or under house arrest, until the moment of the final solution, with a definitive sentence, and then also the eventual compensation. Well, in the most extreme cases it is even around six, seven years. We have stories of people who have waited, but of course this is unique for 2018, even more than twenty years to be compensated for one day in prison with a sum of EUR 300. The average is in the range of three to five years of waiting time'.

For the compensation there is a mechanism foreseen by law with a fixed ceiling. "For one day spent by an innocent person in pre-trial detention in prison, the amount provided for as a tabular minimum, let's call it that by law is EUR 235.82. In the case of house arrest, however, one day is compensated with EUR 117.91. That means exactly half. There is a ceiling,' recalls Maimone, 'beyond which you cannot go and that is the 516,000 euro. It must be said, however, that this threshold is practically never touched. There are actually very few cases throughout the year, and this is another element that should give us pause for thought. No amount of money can ever really compensate for the enormous damage suffered by those who end up in prison when they are innocent'.