The Sunday Read: Why Was Joshua Held for More Than Two Years for Someone Elses Crimes?

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The more he insisted that his name was Joshua, the more delusional he came to be seen.

Journalist Robert Kolker tells us the remarkable story of Joshua Spriestersbach, a homeless man who wound up serving more than two years in a Honolulu jail for crimes committed by someone else.

It was a case of mistaken identity that developed into a slow-motion game of hot potato between the police, the courts, the jails and the hospitals, Mr. Kolker writes. He delves into how homelessness and mental illness shaped Mr. Spriestersbachs adult life, two factors that led him into a situation in which he had little control a bureaucratic wormhole that commandeered and consumed two and a half years of his life.

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Additional production for The Sunday Read was contributed by Emma Kehlbeck, Parin Behrooz, Anna Diamond, Sarah Diamond, Jack DIsidoro, Saskia Solomon, Elena Hecht, Desiree Ibekwe, Tanya Prez, Marion Lozano, Naomi Noury, Krish Seenivasan, Corey Schreppel, Margaret Willison , Kate Winslett and Tiana Young. Special thanks to Mike Benoist, Sam Dolnick, Laura Kim, Julia Simon, Lisa Tobin, Blake Wilson and Ryan Wegner.

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