美国国家公共电台 NPR Trespass, Jail, Repeat: How One Man Has Spent 575 Days in Jail

LINDA WERTHEIMER, HOST:

In Nashua, N.H., Michael Treadwell lives on the streets. He has schizophrenia. And as New Hampshire Public Radio's Emily Corwin reports, when people like him don't get the help they need, local taxpayers 1 can end up with a hefty bill.

EMILY CORWIN, BYLINE 2: I find Michael Treadwell in the back of a courtroom. He's wearing a windbreaker and work boots. And he's leaning his elbows on his knees. At first, it looks like he's chewing gum. Later when we talk, I discover he isn't chewing gum. He's chewing his own gums. Michael Treadwell doesn't have teeth.

MICHAEL TREADWELL: When you live in a town like Nashua, there's not a lot of homelessness there. And it kind of like focuses and puts you in the spotlight 3, especially if you drink alcohol and stuff.

CORWIN: I've been looking for Treadwell since I came across his criminal record. Doing the math, I figured over the last six years, Hillsborough County taxpayers had spent $63,000 keeping him in jail on charges like trespassing 5 and disorderly conduct. For years now, his life has looked like this - trespass 4 in an apartment building, spend 30 days in jail; bother restaurant customers, 42 days in jail; panhandle aggressively, 30 days in jail. At the courthouse, I watched him plead guilty to public urination. Then we take a walk in the rain through the city.

M. TREADWELL: People kill homeless people, violence and everything else, you know? It can be a very dangerous life to live in, you know? I don't suggest jail life as an alternative. But no - no kind of life, you know what I'm saying?

CORWIN: When you were younger, did you think this is what life would be like?

M. TREADWELL: Oh, no (laughter) not at all. Nothing like this. I had different plans.

CORWIN: Treadwell did do time for drug charges in the early '90s. But for years, his ex-wife Sherri Treadwell tells me his life was on the right track. He traversed the country driving trucks, a job he loved. They had two daughters. Sitting across from me at her kitchen table, she remembers the guy she married.

SHERRI TREADWELL: He's the first one to give you the shirt off his back. If you need any help, he's right there. And he has a really good sense of humor. When he has his teeth, he has the biggest, brightest smile. And it just covers him - covers his whole face.

CORWIN: To Sherri, the drinking, the homelessness, the stints 6 in jail - they're all symptoms of his schizophrenia. She tells me it was just a year or two into their marriage that Michael started acting 7 strange.

S. TREADWELL: He would think there's people listening in on our conversations. He would whisper to me in the car, shhh (ph) the car is bugged 8. No, the car's not bugged (laughter). He wouldn't talk on the phone.

CORWIN: Sherri says Treadwell turned to alcohol to cope. They divorced in 2007. People have tried to help. A year after getting divorced, Treadwell walked into a church looking for bus money and met Jarretta Copeland. Nine years later, Copeland knows him better than anyone, including how bad he can get when he drinks.

JARRETTA COPELAND: He gets to yelling and screaming and hollering. And he's talking, and he's cussing people out, swearing and carrying on and so forth 9 and whatnot. It scares people because they don't know what his intentions are.

CORWIN: It was Copeland who got Treadwell diagnosed with schizophrenia. Over and over, she's tried to get him into New Hampshire state mental hospital and failed. Even a judge's order couldn't get him from jail to the hospital. Instead, Treadwell continues to cycle from the streets to court to jail and back again. His story is not uncommon 10. Half of jail inmates 11 nationwide have a combination of mental health and substance-use problems. That's according to the Department of Justice.

Sherri, Treadwell's ex-wife, says the system isn't just failing people like Michael, it's failing their families. Her daughters don't have a dad around. She works two jobs and is rarely home. And they miss him.

S. TREADWELL: His liver is gone now because of the alcoholism. And so we know he's not going to be around for too much longer, and this hurts - this hurts the girls and I. And it hurts me more because I know the system could have done something.

CORWIN: Last time I talked to Treadwell, he told me he wanted to go down to South Carolina where he grew up to get his trucking license 12 back in order. He did make it to South Carolina. He ended up in a jail there. For NPR News, I'm Emily Corwin in New Hampshire.