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Article: Deaf Man Left In Jail For Two Years After Charges Dropped Is Freed With Apology.(Joseph Heard)(Brief Article)
- Article from:
- Jet
- Article date:
- September 24, 2001
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2001 Johnson Publishing Co. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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A deaf and mentally ill Black man who spent two years in a District of Columbia jail after his misdemeanor charges had been dropped said he was ignored, mistreated and kept in isolation.
Joseph Heard was released from jail on August 13th and voluntarily was taken to a mental hospital after officials at the jail discovered the error and retrieved his case file from storage.
"The fact that I had no communication whatsoever-the isolation was the hardest thing to deal with," said Heard, through an American Sign Language interpreter at St. Elizabeths Hospital Chapel. "TV kept me going, and I kept the hope that I would be free one day."
The confusion ...