“Fractured” director Débora Souza Silva, WFAE reporter Dana Miller Ervin and FRONTLINE executive producer and editor-in-chief Raney Aronson-Rath discussed the making of the film and how long waits for care affect defendants as well as others in the criminal justice system on the latest episode of FRONTLINE’s podcast series, The FRONTLINE Dispatch. LISTEN: www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/podcast/dispatch/stuck-in-a-fractured-system/

As a mother, I'm struggling to get my 31-year-old mentally ill son with a meth addiction into a facility. I've gone off to rescue him several times for the last 14 years with no success. I've chased him all last summer from Utah to Nevada, California, Oregon, and Seattle with no luck. He's now incarcerated at a Kentucky jail. It's too far for me to help him. I've pleaded with the jail to get him help, but they just let him stay till his time is served, just to let him out to the same cycle. I'm exhausted and have decided to give it over to God. I feel like a failure as a mother. Please pray for my son to get help. 💔

We need to bring back long term mental health care and do it properly.

Yikes... imagine losing your mind, getting thrown in jail, the judge says you're unfit to go to trial, the hospital says "no vacancy," then the judge sends you back into jail and thats your life for years on end. That's not due process, it ought to be criminal to treat people like this.

All over the US we need to fix our system

Prison is NOT the place for mental illness!!! As a psychiatric nurse, I speak from great experience. FIX THE SYSTEM!!!!!! PLEASE!!!!!

Journalism. Frontline does it. Thank you, Frontline.

Imagine how scary it is to hear a voice talking to you when no one is in the room. I work with kids with mental illness and the things they say that they hear in their heads is terrifying.

what a dark place the US actually is. i cannot comprehend this lack of help in your country. greetings from germany. our people get psychiatrists and meds, free. very sad to see this health care system of yours.

I worked for many years at an in-patient facility where educated professionals and well trained staff provided excellent care to our residents. The facility was closed 5 years ago due to budget cuts. Mental health treatment isn't prioritized because it isn't profitable. It can also be difficult to attract quality staff to work in the mental health field because it can be stressful and dangerous.

This happened to me at 23 in my last year of Med school. While studying I started to hear animal voices coming from my textbooks. I was terrified. I took all my books outside & made my mom listen. She got mad at me which I expected. It lasted 8months. Once I graduated it stopped. I think it was the stress of Med school,caffeine pills,lack of sleep. I’m now 25 & haven’t heard voices since.

Its a well known fact schizophrenia gets worse without medicine. The subject of this film reminds me of a patient I had as a psych nurse who has gone down hill and its heart breaking. They suffer so much. They really dont want to hurt anyone but they are paranoid.

I'm an Army Trained Nurse LPN 💜 and the mental health situation broke 💔 me down. While working in Saint Lucie Detention Center in Florida, I quit. I consider myself pretty tough but also compassionate. The Mental Illness got the best of me.

Thank you Frontline PBS. Your thorough, real, and very much necessary reporting IS VERY MUCH APPRECIATED. Thank you so much

How incredibly sad. Many of these patients could be loving, productive, and effective members of society but for their mental illnesses.

I work in correctional health and mental health care has been pathetic. We don't have adequate staffing or tools. Mental health placement and Addiction help are improving, just not fast enough to keep up. WE NEED STAFF BUT HARDLY ANY ONE WANTS TO WORK IN THIS FIELD. You want it better? Then start signing up for it.

Well done! This is the single largest aspect of the absence of mental health care facing the United States.

Just imagine how many people in every city that is locked up then let out again with no mental health treatment when its plain to see how badly they need it!

I live in Massachusetts, and they have shut down 2 psychiatric hospitals and 2 detox hospitals last year! There's a huge drug problem in the area, now people have nowhere to go for either issue! They say they're getting all this money for these issues while simultaneously closing the places the people desperately need!

We have been through this mess with our kid in NC. I am appalled at how hard it is to get mental health in Charlotte, NC area. Even for the middle class and with good support systems.

Please give these people the real help they need... As an American citizen, they deserve it...

As someone who's served over 8 years in the community corrections field. Is a veteran. And a dedicated, lifelong Independent. Lemme say. This shit is difficult to watch. But I appreciate the efforts of everyone involved, in sharing it. It's never easy to confront truth. But that's exactly why sharing truth, is so important. Thanks for your service.

We need universal healthcare in this country. Not only does this crisis hurt the people suffering mental illnesses and their families, but also their communities. Get them in single payer treatment, shrink the prisons

I sat in jail 39 days in Mississippi on no charges for being suicidal before I was transferred to a hospital.

It's sad that so many who see the issue first hand try to help so much and their hands are still tied. I'm glad Frontline is raising awareness on this issue.

William Seward (he of purchasing Alaska "Seward's Folly"), before he was in the Lincoln administration, worked in upstate NY (can't remember which town) and among other persons, he defended a mentally-ill man who had committed some terrible crimes, saying he was ill and had been beat up and so forth so had disabilities. Seward caught heck from the community, but he was ahead of his time. On the other hand, protecting the community from those who might be unsafe is also paramount. Thanks for this documentary.

Oh it's definitely an fractured system. Fractured all over the place. Thanks again Frontline

The longer they stay in jail, their mental health is getting worse. Imagine having no one to talk tom inside a small room. Sad. I think most of these guys would recover if only they have all the support they need.

I was a corrections officer for 3 yrs man...The mentally ill do not belong inside...Some of them have no clue of what's happening man...Sad...Sad deal

Keep in contact with him. Write him sort letters telling him how you think of him all of the time, that you know this addiction which lives inside him is not who he really is. Keep telling him you love him and are even proud of him how he is still alive. It's important to seperate the addict inside from the person.

I worked in mental health in Australia, recently reired, It is a thankless task and we fight every cent ..... it is all about money. We don't get any money to actually support the clients. It is a hard job and if you care you get burnt out pretty quickly.

Prayers for dillion I've known him for few years now & he helped saved me one day in a autoparts store when a fight broke out.

Thank Reagan for this

We’re always criticizing other nations when our own people are suffering immensely. I feel so terribly for these people. Something has to change in this country or we’re just going to keep deteriorating.

Frontline 👍

There is a huge gap for mental health patients where I live in the New Zealand and it’s heartbreaking for these people

We need to build brand new mental health state psych hospitals all over the US period!!! Imagine money saved in the long run but our country is a mess and our own government is fragile atm...

They don't have psychiatric prisons in the States? I worked at a psych prison in Montreal. It is a prison specifically for those who commit crimes and have psychiatric disorders. We have our issues here in Canada too despite having national health care. We have a huge shortage of psychiatrists and wait times are up to two years with the general population. In the psych prisons the inmates do very well. The problem is when they go home and reoffend again. I think there needs to be group homes. They would be housed ensure they are medicated and looked after. The problem is they go home and are lost. They stop taking meds, no follow up care and within two weeks most are back again! The States issue is people without health insurance. What a sad state of affairs for both nations struggling with the same problem.

Thank you frontline. I hope these people can get help. Its not right putting them them in prison

The world of 80 years ago handled this far better than now.

Being in solitary is very bad for anyone’s mental health! That’s ‘corrections’ for you!

It's disheartening how we're this beacon of hope, but our institutions so dismally fail the hopeless.

This makes economic sense as well because it's far less expensive to treat mental health than it is to let it go unchecked and pay for the consequences like higher crime rates

concise, direct, thorough. great work as always.

Thank you, Dana Ervin. Your work is invaluable.

Sending tens of billions to others countries, and ignoring our own desperate needs! We as a country are in a downward spiral

Sadly, the longer the duration of untreated psychosis (DUP) goes on, the harder it is to experience recovery. Many people don't know they are experiencing psychosis. It is part of the disorder - anosognosia - the patient is unaware of the disabling conditions. We should be rushing to get treatment to patients as soon as possible, not let them linger in jail waiting for a "bed". I would have liked for DUP and anosognosia be addressed in more detail in this documentary. However, I'm thankful mental health issues in jails and prisons are being discussed.

So wrong what we are doing to our most vulnerable people. Thank you to these talented filmmakers for exposing a broken and cruel system.

Tragic story - great reporting

Catch-22 in mental health care and justice system. We need more state mental health facilities and new legislation.

The community group homes were there, but years of not being funded; they closed, leaving those most vulnerable unhoused.

Thank you!.

I'm a mental heath staff nurse from the UK, over 20 odd years in secure forensic inpatients. We take from prison, brain injury service and high security. When I watch this my heart bleeds. For such a rich country its a shame this is the situation in the USA. I dare each state funds the institution, or maybe federal funding is also available- but I dare say that's down to the offense committed.. To sum up, I'm glad I am where I am, enabling others with a care pathway to a decent recovery. What shocks me is our (UK) models of care, risk assessment methodology and predictive future risks re offending is straight out of the US and Canada text books. Peace everyone, and be kind to others when you can be.

I was in jail in Durham and a little bitty lady came in and i think her charge was something like drunk in public or possibly DUI, anyways when she came in she was semi normal and within a day or two she started having manic episodes and would literally stay up all night talking, buzzing the intercom, yelling, just nonsense. The guards got fed up and went into her cell and beat her black and blue. It was awful!!!!

Thanks for the content 100% great work.

Mental health disorders and drug addiction go hand in hand. I am blessed with being over 2 years clean now. Knowing I have a mental health problem has helped and I am connected to services in my neighborhood. Definitely a need for more services

The definition of insanity is expecting a schizophrenic to take his medication...

If he doesn't want to take meds how is he gonna get better even in a mental hospital?

Excellent journalism and filming.

This is so heartbreaking. Jail is no place for the mentally ill. Those corrections officers where right. Any time spent there just causes increased deterioration of the status of the mentally ill.

Wonder what the judge would say if it was his son….

Sicking. I Feel physically sick watching this.

I started watching this and couldn't finish. I've been enduring this cycle with my son since his teens (he's 31 now). Psychologists, psychiatrists, inpatient (psychiatric & substance abuse) facilities, outpatient programs, juvenile detention, jail, and now prison. Plus, a plethora of medication cocktails. Criminal-justice is entwined with the mental health system: both are broken within the U.S. Legislators turn a blind eye.

This is sad and America needs a ton of changes in the way the court system works with this type of situation. Since the 70s America changed to this "Get Tuff" type of prison system where they just throw people away and lock them up 23 hours a day inside a 6x9 and it's just not the way... yeah I agree there are certain groups and people that are extremely dangerous and need this type of segregation but they don't evaluate inmates properly they just process them and let the system run its course it's just unfair and inhumane

Heartbreaking.💔💔💔

As a correctional nurse in a county jail it is a desperate situation that we need more mental health beds for these people as this is not the setting for them.

Waiting on beds means there’s not enough readily available facilities agencies, or hospitals to address the needs for mental health clients and thus the long wait, this is a solvable issue that the states need to implement a plan for and it would cure all the backlog issues

It's ashamed that the Medicaid expansion wasn't implemented sooner. This came out with Obamacare yet many red states wouldn't expand the care. The wealthiest country in the world can't take care of the most vulnerable is shameful.

Everyone thinks the large, muscle-bound inmates are the ones to be afraid of in prison, but the small, crazy inmates are far more dangerous. In my 31 year career in corrections, the most dangerous convicts are the ones no one else would be concerned about.

Conditions and wait time should be agreed on. Good to see some attention to this conversation.

I'm so glade I Got Over mental health Everything started When I was A kid 😢 Glade I made it Through 💪🤞 # 🙏 And continue to help others Make it through 💯

Absolutely horrible 😢

The Exact same thing happened in Canada. As the mentally I’ll were phased out of institutions. The comunity integration never happened it fell through. Very Sad. They account for many of our homeless.

I worked in a mental health hospital for ten years. 150 patients on 5 locked units. Some were able to leave after 6 months, some had been there for 30 years.

This is the most accurate reality concerning mental health in our country. The government has all these laws and regulations with so many contradictions and restrictions that completely fail our society. I wish and long for the day when there will be a class action suit against the government to force their accountability as they enforce ours.

I feel for the dude 100% but the thought of him being released from jail doesn't sit well

That hand-held boom mic is dramatic.

The unfortunate reality is in America right now, county jails are the largest mental health facilities. There are not enough beds in state mental hospitals. Citizens need to pressure their legislators to build new mental facilities. Those cost money and if crazy folks are in county jails they are out of sight out of mind. Sad state of affairs.

One of the problems is all the people claiming 'mental health' issues who just want attention on social media or an excuse not to work.

Now when’s the documentary on the victims at the hands of these people? We’ll wait.

Prisons have been our psychiatric hospital "back wards" since the 90's, ever since so many psychiatric hospitals were deinstitutionalized in the '80's. A complex societal, human ethical dilemma, since we are all "doing time." Many sentences in their 30's and 40's to a lifetime "bid" are now dementing, there is little to no Alzheimer's based care, hospice or many things that most of us in "normal" society" can access.

America must get ahold of their mental illness situation that they're having in jails. This also includes veterans and homeless health.

Great stuff documentary 👍

Jail is hell. I'd rather be in a trench in Ukraine than go to jail. Most people in jail have mental issues. Talking about this will get you fired.

Jail is not supposed to help people, it’s a punishment.

Long term mental care is needed!!!

Very informative documentary

Lost me at "soliciting a minor online'

Artificial Intelligence has seriously pushed Dillon’s buttons. I wonder how many more peope are having debilitating reactions to it.

If they have murdered someone or multiple people, they don't deserve nothing but life in isolation in jail. No matter how sick their mental state is.

I do not understand giving money to other countries before taking care of our own citizens first. Mental health and drug issues plague our homeless also.

Dillon can’t be just, “Let out!” He’s gotta take his medication. He’ll be right back in jail, shortly. He hears voices that tell him very dilutional things. He needs a hospital, but until he can go, he’s gotta stay put for his and everybody else’s safety. If he goes to the hospital, and they force him to take his meds, he’ll get better. Then, he’ll leave the hospital, and then he’ll stop taking them. We need real doctors to visit the jails and convince people like him of how badly they need the medication.

being placed under psychiatric care is no magic happy ending. oftentimes this can result in being placed under the care of narcissistic mental health professionals who have no empathy and overinflated egos. other than different housing, these sufferers find no salvation from the ills that plaque them

Amazing that their are people who wanted to help against all odds. wow I dont think I ever could do that.

this is a most terrible crime against the people;(;(they must have healthcare and a chance,its not there fault..thankyou for this reporting

We shouldn’t be dismissing cases against paedos.

Back in the 1980's, _for very good reason, the United States Supreme Court ruled that people cannot be confined to .mental facilities without their own voluntary authorization. The problem is, _crazy people don't think they're nuts!_ How can three or four different kinds of facilities be made, be made to work, and kept in a working state?

My father is a state certified psychologist in Raleigh North Carolina (Life Quality Resources) and he and his team have worked with the state in various aspects including defendant evaluations, work with the State Police force in officer involved shootings, and many other aspects of public well being. What this micro-documentary did not address (that I saw) was single client evaluations by multiple doctors as well true clinical / scientific / medical diagnosis. For example, schizophrenia has actual markers in the brain that can be tested to prove whether the suspected mental condition is actually real or not from a medical standpoint, not just an observational standpoint. And while some schizophrenics don't want to take medication, so might a person who knows they are probably not schizophrenic. You could in fact potentially act "a little crazy" on purpose to fool people which is why full medical diagnosis should be a firm requirement in most cases. From what I'm seeing in this (and again, I'm not a doctor) I'd say Mr. Ledform either has no schizophrenia or very little. It also sounds like the evidence of him calling in a bomb threat was circumstantial and never proven. And even if it was, how does that actually relate to a true diagnosis? Was he just doing things for attention because of failed parenting or his he actually clinically ill? I've also met actual schizophrenic homeless before, both light and severe cases and their mind for the most part is a true roller coaster. They can hold a conversation for a minute or two or perhaps five at best, but will eventually segue into very elaborate stories which make no sense and these are commonly filled with elaborate fearful delusions of people wanting to hurt them and wild things of this nature. I just didn't see enough of the "wild fantasies" with Mr. Ledford but maybe he does a lot more off camera. Regardless, given what I saw in this documentary, it makes me wonder how many non-medically diagnosed inmates may simply pretend to be mentally ill on some level just to milk the system in hopes of case dismissal. What is true however is that any amount of time in a cell, especially a year or more, will inevitably drive any sane person to some level of insanity. But if people like Mr. Ledford are not fully medically diagnosed, how would the courts actually be able to conduct a fair trial to produce the proper outcome?? If anything, what I got out of watching this is that the system is very flawed, especially in southern states like North Carolina and that we also need appropriate mental facilities which are able to properly diagnose people both observationally and medically. Lastly, no thanks to the Reagan Administration in the 1980's, as they completely de-funded federally subsidized state mental hospitals and this greatly contributed to actual mentally ill people filling up jails and prisons where they cannot get proper treatment. In turn this has also greatly contributed to the explosive homeless epidemic throughout the nation over the last 3 decades as it's reported that the majority of homeless people suffer from some form of mental illness. Lastly, I feel that instead of continuing to give out billions of dollars in federal foreign aid each year we really need to take better care of our people, our cities, our children. We can't help others when we are doing such a bad job at helping ourselves. Another example is education. People pay $20 a month for Netflix yet we have no national online university. Imagine how for $20 a month you could get a degree in countless fields all from your own home. We obviously have the tools and technology. It's basically the wealthy elite, on both sides of politics, that would rather keep the masses incarcerated, uneducated, unhealthy, ...and poor.

Heartbreaking. We should be ashamed as a nation.

Wow….