Prison, more than nine hundred innocent people in cells every year

The phenomenon of bad justice is one of the worst plagues of our judicial system. The ordinigiudiziari.it website that deals with this problem provides figures with the work carried out on 2022 data, the latest available, explaining that the term injustice refers to both victims of improper custody and those of judicial errors. The first are those who serve preventive detention in prison or under house arrest, only to be later acquitted; the second are those who, after being convicted with a final sentence, are acquitted after a review process. When combining the two cases, explain the two authors of the research Benedetto Lattanzi and Valentino Maimone – from 1991 to December 31, 2022 there were 30,778 cases: on average, just over 961 per year. All for a gigantic global expenditure by the State, including real compensation and compensation: 932 million 937 thousand euros and change, for an average of just under 29 million 200 thousand euros per year. In 2022 alone, there were 547 cases of unfair arrests and judicial errors (-25 compared to the previous year). However, global expenditure on compensation and compensation is growing significantly: just under 37 million and 330 thousand euros, 11 and a half million more than in 2021.

But it is the number of cases of unjust arrests that allows us to better understand the dimensions of the emergence of the phenomenon and understand precisely how many judicial errors there are in Italy. In fact, it is precisely those who ended up in pre-trial detention as innocent people who represent the vast majority. From 1992 to 31 December 2022, 30,556 cases were registered: this means that, on average, more than 985 innocent people were registered in pre-trial detention every year. All for an expense that exceeds 846 million and 655 thousand euros in compensation, on an approximate average of 27 million and 311 thousand euros per year. In 2022, there were 539 cases of unjust arrests, with a total of compensation expenses ordered to be settled at 27 million, 378 thousand euros. Compared to the previous year, there was a slight decrease in cases of innocent people who ended up in handcuffs (-26), compared to expenses that increased by almost 3 million euros. The decline already observed in the last two years therefore continues. But it is objectively difficult to imagine that this is exclusively a virtuous process of the system. It is much more likely, firstly, that the pandemic will continue to have its effects on judicial activity at all levels and, therefore, also on the work of the Courts of Appeal responsible for examining claims for compensation for undue custody.

But the restrictive trend according to which the State rejects the vast majority of requests presented or in any case tends to settle values ​​that are always very close to the legal minimums has a considerable impact on this trend towards a reduction in processes. With regard to statistics on real judicial errors, the starting assumption must be that the accounting of judicial errors begins in Italy in 1991, also reaching until December 31, 2022: the total is 222, with an average of almost 7 per annum. Compensation costs amounted to 86,206,214 euros (equivalent to an average of just under 2 million and 694 thousand euros per year). If we only consider 2022, from January to December there were a total of 8 judicial errors: one more than in the previous year. Finally, keep an eye on the total expense in compensation for judicial errors. In 2022 this expense item soared: 9 million and 951 thousand euros, more than 7 times more than last year. But in this regard, it is correct to remember that the criteria for processing compensation are much more discretionary and variable than those established by law for unjust detention.