This chart is from the Chicago-based Center on Wrongful Convictions parallel study on WC costs from about five years ago.
This article is from California. Los Angeles leads with $93.3 million.
“Released Wednesday, the analysis says mistakes in the state’s criminal justice system cost Californians at least $221 million (adjusted for inflation) from 1989 through 2012.
That represents the grand total of incarceration expenses ($80 million), trial and appeal costs ($68 million), legal settlements ($68 million) and state compensation for wrongful imprisonment ($5 million) for 607 people who had their felony convictions overturned, then were acquitted in retrials or had their charges dismissed. The total cost rises to $282 million when the 85 exonerations in the Rampart police corruption scandal in Los Angeles are added.”
BY THE NUMBERS
The number of wrongful arrests and convictions and legal settlements and fees for selected cities and counties, 1989-2012:
- El Dorado County: 21, $570,000
- Fresno County: 22, $3.4 million
- Los Angeles: 370, $93.3 million
- Los Angeles County: 99, $29.5 million
- Merced County: 23, $445,000
- Oakland: 364, $49.5 million
- Placer County: 14, $357,000
- Sacramento: 39, $482,000
- Sacramento County: 193, $7.7 million
- San Francisco: 97, $12.6 million
- San Joaquin County: 8, $477,000
- Stockton: 45, $1.5 million
Source: Earl Warren Institute on Law and Social Policy, UC Berkeley
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