Undeserved Punishment

My name is Evelyn Salas. My 36-year-old son, Jordan Salas, has lived with schizophrenia for seventeen years. In 2025, untreated psychosis pushed him into the criminal legal system—not because he was a criminal, but because the mental health system failed to intervene when treatment was urgently needed.

While Jordan was experiencing severe psychosis and delusions, I repeatedly tried to secure help through his psychiatrist and the New York State Office of Mental Health. Instead of support, I was repeatedly shut out and gaslit under the misuse of HIPAA consent laws, despite Jordan’s long history of illness and obvious decompensation.

Between February and July, Jordan was hospitalized approximately six times. Each time, he was released without any meaningful aftercare plan, coordination with his treating psychiatrist, or continuity of treatment. No stabilization. No follow-up. No protection.

In July, during a psychotic episode, Jordan attacked me. I was forced to obtain a restraining order—an act no mother should ever have to take against her child. In August, he violated that order by calling me for help.

For that call, Jordan was jailed.

On August 25, while incarcerated, my son was assaulted by three correctional officers. Jordan has no criminal history. One officer later claimed Jordan initiated the incident, and additional charges were filed—charges I believe were intended to conceal the excessive force used against him.

Jordan was pepper-sprayed directly in the face, beaten on his head, stomach, back, and chest, and punched in the face, resulting in a hemorrhagic eye. He was then restrained and handcuffed on the floor for over thirty minutes. He received no medical treatment for his injuries.

I learned of the beating only because another incarcerated person called my older son.
Jordan later told an attorney that the assault occurred off-camera, in a shower area. Reports from the officers conflict with each other and with documents I obtained through a FOIL (Freedom of Information Law) request. I have reported the incident to the U.S. Department of Justice Civil Rights Division and multiple policymakers in New York.

Before the assault, Jordan had spent twenty-five days in jail without receiving his prescribed medication or seeing a doctor. He was severely decompensated.

Initially, the District Attorney attempted to combine unproven charges to elevate his case to a felony, seeking prison rather than hospital treatment. After two competency evaluations, a judge ruled Jordan incompetent to stand trial on November 5, 2025, and ordered that he be transferred for psychiatric treatment and stabilization.

I requested that Jordan be treated at Capital District Psychiatric Center in Albany, a civil psychiatric hospital. I do not want him placed in a forensic facility, which is essentially another jail. His charges do not warrant incarceration, let alone placement in a prison-like psychiatric setting.

Jordan’s rights have been repeatedly violated. A public defender was assigned for an alleged assault on a guard despite Jordan already having private counsel. His attorney was never contacted during or after the incident. A restraining order—originally set to expire December 17, 2025—was extended by another court, further cutting him off from family support. I am his only support.

To this day, my son remains in jail, waiting for a hospital bed.

Given the documented abuse and dangerous conditions in New York’s jails and prisons, I fear for my son’s life. Jordan is a good person. He lives with anosognosia—a neurological condition that prevents him from recognizing his illness. He does not understand what is happening to him.
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I am seeking rehabilitation and treatment, not punishment. My son does not deserve this.

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Jordan’s story also reveals the staggering financial cost of systemic neglect. In just a few months, repeated short-term psychiatric hospitalizations—without coordinated aftercare—likely cost taxpayers an estimated $55,000–$80,000, yet failed to provide lasting stabilization. His subsequent incarceration while awaiting competency restoration has likely added $90,000 or more, as New York jail costs exceed $1,500 per day per person. Instead of receiving timely, medically necessary treatment in a hospital setting, public dollars have funded a revolving door of crisis care and incarceration—an approach that is both inhumane and fiscally irresponsible. Early intervention, coordinated treatment, and continuity of care would have saved money, preserved Jordan’s dignity, and most importantly, prevented further harm. This is the real cost of neglect—and it is paid in both lives and dollars.