Insult to injury

Doesn’t anyone in the UK understand the economic concept of “sunk costs” any more?  Three men wrongly convicted of murder and released after many years in jail will have to pay Her Majesty’s Prison Service the cost of “food and lodgings” on the grounds that they would have incurred such expenses if they’d been free men.

Of course, had the men actually been guilty, society and the taxpayer would have absorbed the costs. As far as I am aware, HMPS does not routinely charge guilty men their room and board – and a quick search of the HMPS website does not provide any suggestion that it does.

So, in the bizarro world that is the UK at the moment, if government wrongly incarcerates you, you must pay for the privilege. “Stark staring bonkers,” as they say over there.