When Kenneth Rosenberg trained as a psychiatrist in the late 1980s, the badly overcrowded state mental hospitals were being closed at an alarming rate, with many patients having nowhere to go. Today, the largest mental institution in the United States is the L.A. County Jail, and that is where Rosenberg begins his chronicle of what it means to be mentally ill in America today, integrating his own moving story of how the system failed his sister, Merle, who had schizophrenia. Here too are resources for those in need, including legal advice, practical solutions for parents and loved ones, help finding community support, and information on therapeutic options.