Clark Swanson is a deaf mute. He lives among the street people in a major East Coast city. Police thought he was mentally retarded, but he was not. He didn’t respond to police questions because of his dual impairment.

Eventually he was arrested and taken to the City Jail. There he was given a cursory evaluation ordered by the court. As a result, his jail file was stamped, "mentally ill."

Several weeks later a clerk from the court telephoned the jail to enquire about Swanson’s status. The clerk said he was a deaf mute and not mentally impaired. Jail officials were told that Swanson should be released and the necessary paperwork would be sent over "forthwith." The paperwork never arrived.

For three months Swanson was in a cell by himself because he was believed to be a mental case. Once the word filtered down to corrections officers that Swanson was not a mental case, he was assigned to the general population. He shared a cell with other inmates, even though he could not communicate with them.

Still, as the months went by, none of the jailors seemed to understand that Swanson was not a mental case but that he simply could neither hear nor speak — more importantly, he should be released. It may never be known how frustrating this ordeal was for Swanson.

You have to wonder: "Why was this man arrested in the first place? What was his crime?"

Nobody seems to know the answer to either of these questions. Swanson’s story is lost in an official quagmire.

How long did this injustice go on? That’s what’s so amazing. Clark Swanson remained in the City Jail for nearly two years.

TWO YEARS! And nobody knows why he was arrested in the first place.

Will he sue the city? Probably not. Nobody seems to know where he is today.