Falsely convicted man freed, charged bed/board (England)

You forgot to mention the £252k he got in compensation for false imprisonment.

Really don't get it, huh?

You're missing the point, maybe. His comp was probably calculated as £240k ( nice round number) and the rest added on to pay the penal service for their outlay, after all, they incurred cost at no fault of their own.
It would have been wiser to keep them separate, but they didn't, so the guy goes to the press to make a story. How much did he get for that story, I wonder?

I'm with Gungasnake on this one - The Govt made the mistake, the Govt pays for the mistake.

"I'm sorry, it seems we've falsely imprisoned you - now you have to pay $12,000 for the mistake we made."

And $252K - what a piddling amount for losing 3 years of your life, losing the growing of your kids, and having your name dragged through the mud. (Normally I disagree with the large civil compensation suits - I see many of them as parasitic, but this fellow deserves a lot more.)

Certainly he deserves more - but here in Europe they just don't pay it.