UK – Prisoners receive £10m compensation in last five years

Prisoners in England and Wales in the past 5 years have received more than £10m in compensation. The Ministry of Justice released the report to the Press Association, and it shows almost £1.6m was paid out in 2010-11. And even more, 4 prisoners got between £125,000 and £62,000 in personal injury cases, while 3 got £25,000 for “false imprisonment”.

The MoJ said all claims were “robustly defended and would only be settled on the basis of strong legal advice” to get the best value for the taxpayer. “The vast majority of prisoners’ compensation claims are relatively trivial, do not merit financial redress, and are dismissed at an early stage,” an MoJ spokesman added. BBC

The stats show that in 2010-11 some 280 offenders won payouts of less than £10,000, with many of the smaller claims relating to delays in processing release papers, which can lead to prisoners spending too long behind bars. The £1.6m paid out was less than half the £3,286,521 awarded in 2009-10, when the total was boosted by £1.6m in payouts for medical negligence cases.

Back in 2005-2006, was thestpayout which totaled £2.8m. Then in a separate case, £1.14m went to former prisoner Gregg Marston, of Shoeburyness, Essex, who was left crippled when a doctor failed to send him for an urgent examination. That case was settled out of court. Taxpayers’ Alliance said the public would be shocked at the figures.

Director Matthew Sinclair said: “It’s an incredible amount of money… and with so much pressure both on families’ finances and on the budgets in public services, people are going to be very worried about seeing so much money going on compensation to prisoners. “It does raise issues both about management in prisons and about some of that culture… that compensation culture which is resulting in such large payouts.” BBC