A Chicago teen has racked up a huge amount of medical bills – $1 million – by literally eating the jail. He’s ingested screws, thumb tacks, needles, and more after being unable to post bond for 16 months.
Authorities at Cook County Jail told the Chicago Tribune that the case of 17-year-old Lamont Cathey highlights the hazards of institutionalizing impressionable youths, some of whom have mental health issues.
‘This case to me is a perfect example of the failure of the criminal justice system,’ the jail’s executive director, Cara Smith, told the newspaper.
‘It’s been a crushingly sad and very frustrating case.’
The newspaper says the sheriff’s office moved the Chicago teen into a newer section of the jail last week and that his condition appears to have improved.
Cathey has been in the jail for 16 months following his arrest for allegedly stealing money from a pizzeria safe, after he couldn’t post a $5,000 cash bond.
It’s only when a plea deal that was supposed to let him attend a boot camp fell through last year that he began swallowing objects. They included a thumbtack, strips of leather and even parts of a medical device he had dismantled.
‘He’s literally eating the jail,’ Smith said.
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3 comments:
Well I think the nuts and bolts of this article has made it perfectly clean this man needs to ne in a padded cell and let give food with a little more lead in it.
The nuts and bolts of the justice system are missing. How in the hell can a person be jailed that long with bond available and no trial?
how many bankers went to jail? this guys only crime was being poor and having no political connections! Total BS!
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