The Incompetence of the System

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Spristersbach was arrested and charged with trespassing, misdemeanor. He sat in jail for two months until the court declared him unfit to proceed. Now that he was unfit, the system's job was to try to restore him to competency so that he could face his charges in court. But the task of treating the incompetent to stand trial is where the system such as it is, quite often breaks down before long. One patient there since 19 81, after committing murder, left the hospital, took a cab to the airport and eventually flew to san jose.

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.