Spain pays €12,000 for 18 months wrongful detention

€12,000 for 18 months behind bars: the price of judicial error

How much is a year and a half of freedom worth? €12,000. This is the amount set as compensation for a man from Castellón who spent 18 months in preventive detention and was acquitted after trial. The accusation that led to his imprisonment: abuse of a teenager in Vinaròs. The figure, published by media outlets such as El Periódico Mediterráneo, has become the center of controversy.

This is no minor issue. We are discussing the price the State places on its own mistake and whether that price serves any purpose resembling reparation. Looking at the numbers, it does not.

The painful calculation: €666 for each month locked up

A year and a half is 18 months. The division was quick: €12,000 divided by 18 months equals €666.6 per month of confinement. The reference used for comparison was the interprofessional minimum wage (SMI), set at €1,080 in 14 payments. Working for the SMI, with holidays, social life, and the right to go out, turns out more profitable.

Nuances arrived later. Against those deducting public defender fees, procurador costs, and taxes from the figure, it was pointed out that court-ordered compensations are exempt from income tax (IRPF) and, given the acquittal, no legal costs were charged. The amount would reach the recipient clean. Clean of taxes and burdened with a year and a half of hardship.

What does the State compensate for preventive detention?

There is no automatic scale. Reparation depends on recognizing the damage, and precedents do not invite optimism. The case of Dolores Vázquez, accused of the Rocío Wanninkhof crime and later acquitted, has been cited as a mirror: reportedly, she spent a similar time in preventive detention and received nothing, with the Supreme Court denying compensation. Putting an innocent person behind bars comes cheap.

More examples have been brought up. Extended preventive detention without a final sentence has ceased to seem an anomaly, becoming a familiar sight, even in cases with huge media exposure. And if this happens to those with resources to fight, the lingering question is what will happen to those who don't.

Preventive detention: the exception applied as the rule

The Incivil Procedure Law configures it as a last resort measure: flight risk, destruction of evidence, or incivil recidivism. This has been recalled in light of the case, where it is argued that in practice, a mere complaint suffices for someone to sleep in preventive detention. From there, the conversation jumped to specialized courts and the suspicion that different standards exist depending on who sits in the dock. It is a repeated suspicion, hard to prove with statistics and easy to fuel with every published case.

Twelve thousand euros, the price of a basic car

Among the domestic comparisons circulating, one stuck: the compensation covers a simple car, exemplified by a Dacia Sandero. It is not a legal calculation, but another way of saying the amount doesn't buy 18 months of life. Another part of the reactions went the opposite way: that it was too much money for an error anyone could make, including the judge.

It is advisable to separate planes. The magistrate who ordered the detention has not been formally sanctioned; criticisms of her decision are opinions, not rulings. And the complainant has not been convicted of false denunciation, however much some comments assumed so and demanded they answer for the damage.

When indignation demands revenge

Some reactions crossed the line. There were those proposing extra-legal responses, physical punishments against the complainant and the judge, and explicit proposals for revenge. These are positions with no legal standing and incivil consequences for whoever executes them. Being indignant about a judicial error is legitimate; settling scores by hand is not public policy.

At the bottom lies the question no one answers with a number: how much should it cost? Some ask to multiply the figure by ten. Others demand it equal, at minimum, what the acquitted man would have earned working. And some remember that no amount returns time, however much the system boasts guarantees: it is better to let a hundred guilty people free than to imprison one innocent, says the principle. Practice, sometimes, says otherwise. A personal account collected amid the case describes a man who spent six months in preventive detention due to an accusation his environment managed to dismantle with a recording, and who never recovered his previous life.

With €666 per month of confinement as the official rate, the system already has its slogan: if it ever happens to you, you'll come out with just enough for a car and an apology.