People who spent years, even decades, behind bars in California’s prisons before being exonerated are not entitled to any services or compensation, not even the normal reintegration counselling, funding and services made available to parolees and criminals who’ve served their time.
Instead, they’re dumped in bus stations without any money or help. They can then initiate proceedings which take at least a year, hoping to recover at most $140/day for the years they spent behind bars. The Victim Compensation and Government Claims Board – which takes as much as four years just to year a case – then requires the exonerated person to prove that they are “more likely than not” innocent. This process can also take years. Then the board can simply deny the claim. Simply attempting to get compensation can result in local DAs pressing fresh charges in acts of vindictive retaliation.
California is the worst offender when it comes to denying justice to the wrongfully imprisoned, but it’s not the only one. Many US states have systems that are nearly as unjust.
