Mother of homeless man forced to lick urinal calls alleged abuse an 'abomination'
HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) - The 37-year-old man who four officers allegedly forced to lick a urinal has struggled with drugs and homelessness for years, said his mother, who called the abuse an "abomination."
"I have a lot of faith and forgiveness. But this has gone beyond," Charity Ingall told Hawaii News Now.
Ingall lives in Pennsylvania and said she had no idea about the abuse case involving her son.
She also said her son, Samuel, struggles with drug abuse.
It's a struggle that was part of a recent documentary about Hawaii's homeless crisis, "No Room in Paradise."
Cameras captured Ingall as he walked out of Halawa prison in 2016. At the time, he was adamant about not ending up back in jail.
"I'm ready to work immediately. Whatever job I don't care," he said back then. "I don't want to risk going back to prison and selling drugs on the street."
The documentary also showed Ingall checking into a homeless shelter — but he didn't stay long.
Just five days after his release, he was found leaving a hospital after overdosing on crystal meth.
"I've been up for days and days and days," he said. "I can't go to a homeless shelter. Because you can't go to a homeless shelter and recover."
Ingall's mother says the state Department of Public Safety should provide inmates with the documents they need to apply for permanent housing before they are released.
"They just let him out on the street with no ID, nothing," said Charity Ingall.
She feels the lack of rehabilitation and support is why he is still using and getting into tangles with police.
Last week, four Honolulu police officers were stripped of their badges and guns after allegedly abusing Ingall. The FBI is investigating.
The state doesn't have statistics on how many inmates are discharged without ID cards, but prison officials said most already have one.
And despite a new law passed last summer requiring the agency to inform and assist prisoners with the ID process, a spokesman with the state's largest homeless service provider says at least 10 ex-cons have showed up at the shelter over the past few months with nothing.
"The cycle really needs to end and we really need to intervene well before discharge," said Kimo Carvalho, spokesman for the Institute for Human Services.
In order to apply for an apartment rental in Hawaii, you need two forms of identification. You also need ID to apply for a job and to get insurance.
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