The Ohio kidnap victims could get reparations worth $25,000 for each year they were held captive, according to a new bill that was initially approved. The kidnap victims would each get more than $200,000 in reparations.
The bill will cover anyone who is held in “involuntary servitude” for at least eight years, reported NBC News. It was designed to help out Gina DeJesus, Michelle Knight, and Amanda Berry--who were held captive by Ariel Castro in his dungeon-like Cleveland home for a decade.
The bill passed a committee vote on Wednesday and will move onto Ohio’s House of Representatives.
The women would get between $225,000 and $275,000 each under the bill. They would also be entitled to free tuition and living expenses at an Ohio state college, and they would also get free medical care.
The money would come from the Ohio Court of Claims’ victims of crime fund, reported the Cleveland Plain Dealer.
“We are merely trying to restore what they lost as a result of their involuntary servitude,” state Rep. John Barnes told the paper.
Rep. Cheryl Grossman added that “we certainly can look at what we can do to help in the future, and I think this is the right thing for us to do.”
But Rep. Matt Lynch told the Columbus Dispatch that Ohio already has a similar victims’ fund that paid out an average of $2,714 to 3,600 recipients each.
“I don’t know how to evaluate one victim versus another. They’re all deserving of our support,” Lynch said. “It strikes me as somehow improper to single out particular victims.”
Castro pleaded guilty for raping and abusing the three women over the decade-long period. He was found dead in his cell last month of an apparent suicide.
