Elizabeth Ford cared for one of the most vulnerable populations of mentally ill people: the inmates of New York's jails, including Rikers Island. Her patients made her a great doctor and a better person and, as she treated these men, she learned about doctoring, about nurturing, about parenting, and about love. Ford brings humour, grace, and humanity to her beautifully rendered prose on the lives of the patients in her care, and illuminates the inner workings (and failings) of the mental health system, the justice system and the prison system.

Author Biography

Elizabeth Ford, MD is currently the Chief of Psychiatry for Correctional Health Services for New York City's Health and Hospitals and a Clinical Associate Professor of Psychiatry at New York University School of Medicine. She spent years working on the jail inpatient psychiatry service at Bellevue and in the Bellevue psychiatric emergency room, specializing in the care of individuals with mental illness in the criminal justice system. Dr. Ford teaches and writes extensively about topics related to the interface of mental health, law, and correctional settings. She lives in New York with her family.