Arrested, ended up in the media-judicial meat grinder, then exonerated and finally compensated by the State: it is a traumatic experience that affected 619 people in Italy in 2023 alone and 31,175 from 1991 to 31 December last year. The data emerges from the latest dossier drawn up by ordinigiudiziari.com, the association which for over 25 years has shed light on the drama of the innocent in prison and which is now also sounding the alarm on Bari and its surroundings, where cases of unjust detention are almost tripled over 365 days.
To understand the extent of the phenomenon we need to analyze the numbers. From 1992 to 2023, in Italy, over 974 people per year ended up in prison despite being completely innocent. To compensate them, the State paid reparations for a total of approximately 875 million, equal to an average of 27 million and 328 thousand euros per year. In 2023, there were 619 cases of unjust detention, i.e. 80 more than in 2022, for a cost of 27 million and 844 thousand euros, equal to approximately half a million more.
And what happens in Puglia and Basilicata? The most worrying data concerns the Bari Court of Appeal district, where the confirmed unjust detentions went from eight in 2022 to 20 in 2023 with an expense in compensation that exceeded 548 thousand euros: a value, the latter, more than increased tenfold, given that in 2022 it was around “only” 51 thousand euros. The situation is almost unchanged in Lecce, where the cases of innocent people in prison fall from 33 to 31, therefore remaining within the historical Salento average which fluctuates between 25 and 40. Here, however, the outlay is much more substantial than that recorded from Bari: we are talking about just under one million and 180 thousand euros. The expenditure relating to Lecce, however, is in line with that recorded in 2022, when one million and 42 thousand euros were spent to compensate the innocent people unjustly arrested. As for Taranto, the six cases of unjust detention recorded in 2022 are confirmed in 2023, for a cost of just over 185 thousand euros. Also in this case the amount paid by the State to compensate the victims of bad justice is increasing by around 15 thousand euros. Moving on to Basilicata, in Potenza there are three cases: a number in line with historical data, for an expense of around 60 thousand euros and a very slight decrease compared to that of 2022.
The statistics put together by the ordinigiudiziari.com association first of all reveal one aspect: the number of unjust detentions and reparations is increasing again, albeit slightly, but it is difficult to imagine that this is exclusively a virtuous process of the system. Much more likely, however, is that the pandemic will continue to have its effects felt on judicial activity at all levels, therefore also on the work of the Courts of Appeal responsible for disposing of requests for compensation for unjust detention. But the restrictive tendency according to which the State rejects the vast majority of applications submitted or in any case tends to settle amounts always very close to the legal minimums has a considerable impact on this decline in cases.
The second observation concerns the Court of Appeal district of Bari which includes, in addition to the Court of the capital, also those of Trani, Lucera and Foggia. The growing number of maxi-operations, with the arrest of tens or hundreds of people at a time, risks resulting, within five or six years, in yet another surge in cases of unjust detention and compensation costs.
