Critical Analysis of "Inside a Mental Hospital Called Jail" by Nicholas Kristof

In the article written by Nicholas Kristof, "Inside a Mental Hospital Called Jail, "the author uses many techniques to persuade readers of his claim. Kristof states that the only way for mentally disturbed people to get help is "....a jail. The only way to get treatment is to be arrested." This statement is part of Kristof's claim, that mentally ill people should not be placed in jail because it is unjust, is a bad use of taxes, and is a disturbance for the inmates. Kristof wants to inform his readers of the maltreatment given to the mentally ill by the United States. Kristof, like most New York Times authors, has a structure in his writing of becoming more and more specific as the text progresses. For example, Kristof starts off by stating his claim, then goes into some facts about the jailing of the mentally ill. Kristof supports those facts with emotional stories and quotes from some inmates, and then smoothly transitions into how taxes effect jails. Kristof ties the piece together with a direct author-to-reader-question,"Do we really want to go back two centuries? Doesn’t that seem not only inhumane but also deluded — on our part?" This adds on to the effect discussing taxes has on making the issue feel personal to the aimed audience, as well as sums up his main idea in a vague way that could be interpreted differently. 

One way the author tugs on his readers' emotions is by using strong quotes and anecdotes. Kristof tells four people's stories, along with a quote from each of them. Kristof tells the stories bluntly and openly, letting the quotes add on feeling to support their backgrounds. What I feel is the strongest example of this technique is Kristof's discussing Russel, a 46 year old suffering from severe depression who self medicates with alcohol. 

"Most of his adult life has been spent behind bars for one offense after another, and he said he became aware of his mental health problems when he was being clubbed by a thug with a baseball bat and realized that he was enjoying it.

‘I just want to be normal,’ he said as we spoke in a large dormitory room for inmates with psychiatric problems. ‘I want to have a job. I’ve never had a job. I want to be able to say hi to a co-worker.’ He stopped, and there were tears in his eyes." This quote shows the subtlety but impact of Kristof’s style, from word choice to organization.

            Although I know that the New York Times is aimed at an adult, tax-paying audience who would relate more to some of Kristof’s evidence, his writing and use of quotes really made me see his perspective clearly.  I thought that Kristof picked an extremely interesting issue and addressed it well, adding the right amount of creativity to a nonfiction piece.