Behind the Gates of Gomorrah: A Year with the Criminally Insane By Stephen Seager

Have you ever wondered what happens to a criminal who is found unfit to stand trial? I can't say it was a question that kept me up at night but when I picked up Behind the Gates of Gomorrah: A Year with the Criminally Insane, promising a dark version of Orange is the New Black, it definitely crossed my mind and decided I should find out. What does happen to the criminally insane is frightening but not as scary as what happens to those charged to care for them.

Dr. Seager chronicles his first year at California's Gorman State Hospital where he watches colleagues (and himself) get beaten, attacked, threatened and demeaned only to have their attacker return after they are found, yet again, to be unfit to stand trial. His eye-opening account is not preachy. Seager saves his rant on the flawed system as an afterword to the book. Instead, he paints a picture in hard facts and lets the reader decide how they feel about Gomorrah and the system itself.