A seemingly endless rotation between state forensic hospitals and city jails has meant that some mentally ill detainees stay in the system for years without ever standing trial.
Steven Hutcherson, who was charged in the stabbings of two teenage sisters on Christmas Day, slashed a detainee on Rikers Island three days later, the authorities said.
A Queens man accused in a drug case shinnied down nearly five stories at a hospital, caught a cab and couch surfed with friends and relatives before he was recaptured Tuesday.