audio, stills, text and or video: Go to zReportage.com to see more - In the darkness of early mornings during his graveyard shift at Nevada's primary state psychiatric hospital, Gilbert Degala regularly walked patients outside and watched them climb into taxis bound for the Greyhound bus station on Main Street. The scene made him uneasy. Many of the patients, burdened with mental illnesses that caused them to become delusional, suicidal or violent, were being discharged from Rawson-Neal Psychiatric Hospital in Las Vegas to buses that would ferry them hundreds of miles away. Some of the men and women knew why they were traveling to places like Miami or Sacramento or Los Angeles, Degala said. They were returning to family or friends. But for a troubling number ''there was no one to pick them up,'' he said. Since July 2008, Rawson-Neal Psychiatric Hospital has transported more than 1,500 patients to other cities via Greyhound bus, sending at least one person to every state in the continental United States. PICTURED: Ex- patient of Rawson-Neal Psychiatric Hospital in Las Vegas, James James Flavy Coy smokes a pipe and now leaves on the streets of Sacramento.
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April 4, 2013 - Sacramento, California, U.S. - JAMES FLAVY COY BROWN, 48, displays his open mouth to show that he swallowed all his medication that is delivered daily to Home Sweet Home, a boarding home where he now lives. On the counter is a signed paper that he received his medication.
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April 11, 2013 - Sacramento, California, U.S. - JAMES FLAVY COY BROWN shares a tender moment with his daughter SHOTZY BROWN HARRISON. She had just arrived to a boarding home to take her father to live with her family back in North Carolina. He was released from a Nevada state psychiatric hospital in February with only three days medication and a one way bus ticket to Sacramento where he knew no one.
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April 11, 2013 - Sacramento, California, U.S. - JAMES FLAVY COY BROWN holds onto the hand of his daughter SHOTZY BROWN HARRISON as they go into the Social Security office to straighten out his ID. He was living in a boarding home in Sacramento and she arrived from North Carolina to take him home with her.
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April 4, 2013 - Sacramento, California, U.S. - JAMES FLAVY COY BROWN, 48, is addicted to smoking his pipe and consistently asks for more tobacco as he waits for his morning medicine to be delivered. He now lives at the Home Sweet Home boarding house after a harrowing journey from a mental hospital in Las Vegas to the unfamiliar streets of Sacramento.
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April 3, 2013 - Sacramento, California, U.S. - JAMES FLAVY Coy Brown, 48, folds his laundry outside Home Sweet Home boarding house. ''I need clothes, I only have 2 pairs of pants and 2 pairs of socks,'' said Brown who has been living on the streets of Sacramento before Joy Ubungen took him into her boarding house.
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April 11, 2013 - Sacramento, California, U.S. - SHOTZY BROWN HARRISON strokes JAMES FLAVY COY BROWN'S head during their first private moment alone together. ''You just spent your last day homeless, Dad,'' she said as she gazed into his eyes. They were off to straighten out his new address and fill out information at the Social Security office.
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April 11, 2013 - Sacramento, California, U.S. - JAMES FLAVY COY BROWN is reunited with his daughter SHOTZY BROWN HARRISON.
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May 21, 2013 - Sacramento, California, U.S. - Joshua Soules, 25, of Sacramento, says he suffers from mental illnesses diagnosed as bipolar disorder and schizoaffective disorder. He depends on a strict regimen of medication to maintain stability. When he was discharged from Rawson-Neal Psychiatric hospital in Las Vegas he was given medication but threw them away before getting on the bus headed for Sacramento. He said he believed they were spiked with heroin.
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May 21, 2013 - Sacramento, California, U.S. - JOSHUA SOULES, 25, of Sacramento, demonstrates his kick boxing moves that he uses to defend himself in the backyard of a South Sacramento boarding home. He was one of about 500 patients discharged from Rawson-Neal Psychiatric Hospital with a one-way Greyhound ticket out of Las Vegas to California and among 19 to the city of Sacramento since July 2008.
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May 21, 2013 - Sacramento, California, U.S. - JOSH SOULES, 25, of Sacramento, who has been seriously mentally ill since he was a teenager, and was shipped back from Las Vegas to the Capital City about 18 months ago, has been living in a boarding house for the past few days. His mother has a restraining order against him.
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Oct. 29, 2013 - Sacramento, California, U.S. - JUSTIN DAVID BRINSKY is arraigned. Brinsky, who said in a jailhouse interview that he has been diagnosed with bipolar disorder and disabling ''manic'' episodes and depression, was bused to Sacramento in June 2012.
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Nov. 18, 2013 - Seattle, Washington, U.S. - MARC BERRIER, 37, looks out for homeless people to pass out coffee and donuts during the Seattle Union Gospel's Morning Watch program. Berrier was bused to Seattle where he knew no one . Berrier was an alcoholic and used to be homeless. He now has graduated from the addiction recovery program at the Seattle's Union Gospel Mission and goes out from 6am-9am every morning as part of their morning watch program to spread Christianity and pass out coffee and donuts to the homeless.
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Nov. 18, 2013 - Seattle, Washington, U.S. - MARC BERRIER, 37, waits to deliver shoes to a friend at the men's shelter during the Seattle Union Gospel's Morning Watch program. Berrier who was bused to Seattle where he knew no one.
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Nov. 18, 2013 - Seattle, Washington, U.S. - MARC BERRIER, right, chats with MARKUM DENISON, left, a homeless man, after giving out coffee and donuts.
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Nov. 17, 2013 - Seattle, Washington, U.S. - MARC BERRIER, 37, center, waits in a line for dinner before an Alpha meeting. Berrier is one of the group leaders in the 10 week course.
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Nov. 17, 2013 - Seattle, Washington, U.S. - MARC BERRIER, 37, left, prays in an Alpha meeting for his Dad who is scheduled to have heart surgery.
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Nov. 17, 2013 - Seattle, Washington, U.S. - MARC BERRIER, 37, left, embraces RAY LEWANDOWSKI after he led a prayer for his dad who needs heart surgery during an Alpha meeting.
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Nov. 17, 2013 - Seattle, Washington, U.S. - MARC BERRIER, 37, listens during an Alpha meeting. Berrier is one of the group leaders in the 10 week course. Alpha is a course which seeks to introduce the basics of the Christian faith. He has a tattoo on his fingers that spells LUCK.
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June 4, 2013 - La Plata, Maryland, U.S. - PAT CAROLEO, 69, of La Plata, Maryland shows off a room with memorabilia highlighting trophies and awards her son Nicholas Caroleo garnered throughout his childhood. Her eyes fill with tears as she explains what a great athlete he was. He has been in and out of jails and hospitals in cities all over the country, his mother said. Now she has a court ordered restraining order against him after receiving threatening phone and text messages.
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June 4, 2013 - La Plata, Maryland, U.S. - PAT CAROLEO, 69, of La Plata, Maryland, holds a photograph of her son Nicholas Caroleo when he was a teenager. ''We have tried everything to get him help, but nothing has worked. Nothing,'' she said. ''I've cried and cried and cried for 12 years. I don't cry anymore.'' Since his discharge from Rawson-Neal Psychiatric Hospital in Las Vegas he has left chilling voice messages and threatening texts.
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