For Mentally Ill Inmates at Rikers Island, a Cycle of Jail and Hospitals [NYTimes.com]

Samantha Sangenito 4/13/154:00 AM

It was not a particularly violent crime that sent Michael Megginson to Rikers Island. He was arrested for stealing a cellphone.

But in jail, Mr. Megginson, who is 25 and has been in and out of psychiatric hospitals since the age of 6, quickly deteriorated, becoming one of the most violent inmates on the island.

In his 18 months there, he was constantly involved in some kind of disturbance, his records show. He fought with other inmates and officers; spit and threw urine at them; smashed windows and furniture and once stabbed an officer in the back of the head with a piece of glass.

At least twice, his bones were broken in beatings by guards.

[For more of this story, written by Michael Winerip and Michael Schwirtz, go to http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04...-hospitals.html?_r=0]

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