From the New York Times
Dressed in an orange Harris County Jail-issued jumpsuit, Sterling Shepherd sat at a metal picnic table and described what got him into this situation — again.
“I’m extremely mentally ill and extremely intelligent,” said Mr. Shepherd, a 43-year-old with intense brown eyes and a big grin. During a 12-minute interview on Feb. 15, Mr. Shepherd veered in and out of reality, talking at times lucidly about taking medication for his severe bipolar disorder and at others describing how Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. spoke to him through the television and explaining that Pope Benedict XVI is his grandfather.
It was Mr. Shepherd’s eighth stay at the Harris County Jail, a Houston facility the size of two football fields that houses more than 10,000 inmates. He is one of about 2,400 inmates taking psychotropic medications. The jail is the largest mental institution in the state. It has a special unit with 108 beds for the severely mentally ill, where guards wear less-intimidating uniforms, nurses are on duty 24 hours a day and inmates undergo intensive psychiatric treatment.
Read more at NYTimes.com.