The Case of Thomas Castlebery

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The patient refused to admit that he was thomas castlebery. Within a few weeks, bristersbach moved from the admissions unit to a unit where the plan was to keep him until he was competent. No one checked to see if his finger prints matched those of the man in the bench warrant. Under conditions like this, a certain drastic disconnect between staff and patience is baked into a place like h s h. The message from the top down is to not assume too much responsibility. I stayed in my lane.

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.