Mentally ill in solitary: a worsening problem.
In Florida, one in five mentally ill prisoners is in solitary confinement. For Kristopher Pena, being diagnosed with schizophrenia began a nightmare
After her son tore off his penis with his bare hands in his cell, Gemma Pena thought Florida’s prison authorities might see his illness. They’d see he needed a hospital, instead of solitary confinement.
“No,” she said. “That’s when the nightmare really started.”
As her son Kristopher has moved through Florida’s prison system; so has Pena, relocating around the state to stay close to him. Now she lives in a tiny one-room apartment in a run-down Miami neighborhood. There’s a bed, a small table, two chairs, and a little window. She keeps the door locked. She lives in a solitary confinement of her own.
The room is tidy to the point of emptiness. But as she talked about her son, materials emerged from hiding places. Childhood mementos from under the bed, medical records in a closet. Before long they covered the table, the chairs, spilling on to the floor. She has saved everything – everything – starting with his birth certificate, the “Happy Tooth Cavity Fighter Club” certificate, and eventually darker certifications from mental institutions.
Recently she unearthed them like an archaeologist, moving through the layers from his childhood through his illness and imprisonment. But then the record falls silent, for two years. He disappeared.
“They call it ‘the box’,” she said.
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