Spristersbach's Mental Illness at Hs H

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With almost no exceptions, every patient at h s h has come in through the court system. It took more than eight hours to report the escape and days to find him. The staff's job is to help them all become mentally fit to face their charges in court. Spristersbach couldn't be sent back to jail because of his mental illness; he couldn't be forcibly medicated because he was not dangerous. And so he seemed destined to remain stuck in the hospital.

The more he insisted that his name was Joshua, the more delusional he came to be seen.

Journalist Robert Kolker tells us the remarkable story of Joshua Spriestersbach, a homeless man who wound up serving more than two years in a Honolulu jail for crimes committed by someone else.

It was a case of mistaken identity that developed into “a slow-motion game of hot potato between the police, the courts, the jails and the hospitals,” Mr. Kolker writes. He delves into how homelessness and mental illness shaped Mr. Spriestersbach’s adult life, two factors that led him into a situation in which he had little control — a bureaucratic wormhole that commandeered and consumed two and a half years of his life.

This story was written by Robert Kolker and recorded by Audm. To hear more audio stories from publications like The New York Times, download Audm for iPhone or Android.