Pete Earley, a former Washington Post reporter, wrote this book after his adult son, during a manic episode, broke into a neighbor's house and was arrested rather than hospitalized. That personal crisis led Earley to investigate what happens to people with serious mental illness who encounter the criminal justice system rather than the mental health system. The book alternates between Earley's family's struggle to get his son treatment and his reporting from inside the Miami-Dade County jail, where he gained unprecedented access to observe mentally ill inmates. He follows several individuals through the revolving door between jail and street, documenting how the system fails to provide treatment that might break the cycle. Earley shows how changes in civil commitment laws, underfunding of community mental health, and the war on drugs combined to make jails the largest psychiatric facilities in most American counties. The book profiles advocates, judges, police officers, and social workers trying to improve a broken system, as well as the families desperately trying to help their loved ones. While focused on Miami, the patterns Earley identifies apply nationwide. Both a compelling personal narrative and a work of investigative journalism, this book illuminates one of America's most shameful policy failures while highlighting individuals and programs working toward solutions.