New York Times reports on FG+G Federal Civil Rights Lawsuit
Spriesterbach was jailed for a crime he did not commit, judged unfairly and incorrectly, and medically treated against his will because he was mentally ill and homeless. Robert Kolker reports on this case for NYT.
“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,” reports Kolker. He explores 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 and consumed two and a half years of his life, in the expose linked below.
“Our goal includes structural reforms at the arresting agency, jail, public defender and hospital to ensure that clients are properly identified, their own words are given weight, and that errors once made are promptly corrected– this is particularly needed for houseless and mentally ill people like Joshua.”
You can see a full list of reforms regarding houselessness demanded by the ACLU of Hawai’i here.
You can read more from the New York Times below, or listen to the story recorded for The Daily podcast.