Crazy: A Father’s Search Through America’s Mental Health Madness

Earley arrives at the Miami-Dade Country Pretrial Detention Center in Miami, Florida, which sits across the street from the Eleventh Circuit courthouse, the fourth largest trial court in the nation. He meets the jail’s chief psychiatrist, Dr. Joseph Poitier, who gives him a tour. Earley describes the crowded jail and informs the reader that the Miami-Dade jail system is the fourth largest in the country. An average of 700 incarcerated individuals are taking psychiatric medicine in this jail every day. Dr. Poitier brings Earley to the ninth floor, which is primarily the “primary psychiatric unit,” also known as “the forgotten floor” (44). This floor houses incarcerated individuals with the most severe forms of mental illness.

This chapter begins with a description of the layout of the ninth floor as well as a description of its atmosphere—smelly, cold, and noisy. Earley watches a new prisoner arrive and be forced to strip naked in front of the other prisoners in their cells before he is allowed to wear a white uniform. Incarcerated individuals on suicide watch are forced to remain naked in their cells. Earley follows Dr. Poitier on his rounds as he speaks to his patients. As Earley soon realizes, “Each cell has its own story” (51).