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Police: Man Wanted To Go Back To Jail
INVERNESS, Fla. -- A 48-year-old man who spent years behind bars stole a six-pack of beer and told the clerk to call police so he could be sent back to jail. "I took the beer because I want to go to jail," Robert Fremer said, according to an arrest report. "Take me to jail. I can't succeed in this world. They won't give me a chance."
Fremer was sitting calmly in the parking lot of the Circle K when officer Matthew Ambrose arrived Sunday. The stolen six-pack of Busch beer was at his side.
Fremer was being held Wednesday under $5,000 bond at the Citrus County jail on a count of retail petty theft.
Some experts said he is an example of the failures of Florida's public mental health system.
Fremer's first Citrus County arrest came in 1975, just four years after he moved to Florida from New York City. He was charged with robbery, but the case was later dropped.
There were other charges afterward for which he received probation. Between 1987 and 2000 he was in and out of jails and prisons for drunken driving, assault, probation violation, shoplifting and drugs.
"Clearly, there's a need for a social services net that includes temporary housing and a temporary soup kitchen, as well as some sort of vocational training," said Sam Sears, a clinical health psychologist with the University of Florida.
Without such assistance, it will be difficult for people such as Fremer to function outside of a jail or prison, he said.
But Fremer may have no intention of leaving the incarcerated life.
On the way to the jail in this town 60 miles north of Tampa, Fremer asked the officer if he had committed a misdemeanor or a felony.
When told it was a misdemeanor, Fremer replied: "Next time I'll have to commit a felony so I can go to prison as soon as I get out of jail."
INVERNESS, Fla. -- A 48-year-old man who spent years behind bars stole a six-pack of beer and told the clerk to call police so he could be sent back to jail. "I took the beer because I want to go to jail," Robert Fremer said, according to an arrest report. "Take me to jail. I can't succeed in this world. They won't give me a chance."
Fremer was sitting calmly in the parking lot of the Circle K when officer Matthew Ambrose arrived Sunday. The stolen six-pack of Busch beer was at his side.
Fremer was being held Wednesday under $5,000 bond at the Citrus County jail on a count of retail petty theft.
Some experts said he is an example of the failures of Florida's public mental health system.
Fremer's first Citrus County arrest came in 1975, just four years after he moved to Florida from New York City. He was charged with robbery, but the case was later dropped.
There were other charges afterward for which he received probation. Between 1987 and 2000 he was in and out of jails and prisons for drunken driving, assault, probation violation, shoplifting and drugs.
"Clearly, there's a need for a social services net that includes temporary housing and a temporary soup kitchen, as well as some sort of vocational training," said Sam Sears, a clinical health psychologist with the University of Florida.
Without such assistance, it will be difficult for people such as Fremer to function outside of a jail or prison, he said.
But Fremer may have no intention of leaving the incarcerated life.
On the way to the jail in this town 60 miles north of Tampa, Fremer asked the officer if he had committed a misdemeanor or a felony.
When told it was a misdemeanor, Fremer replied: "Next time I'll have to commit a felony so I can go to prison as soon as I get out of jail."
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