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Trapped Within a Failing System
Paperback
Publisher: Devi Woods
Published: Oct 13 2026
Pages: 438
Weight: 1.28
Height: 0.89 Width: 6.00 Depth: 9.00
Language: English
In 2019, Devi Woods was sent to Battell Hall, the general psychiatry unit of Connecticut Valley Hospital. She expected treatment. What she found, she says, was a system that restrained, secluded, and sedated patients instead of helping them heal.
So she started writing. Multiple times a day, every day, for two years.
Trapped Within a Failing System is that journal: 283 raw, unfiltered entries written from inside a locked psychiatric ward. They capture four-point restraints and forced medication, chaotic wards and the patients who lived on them, COVID-19 quarantine behind locked doors, and the slow fight for release, led by a father serving as her conservator.
Inside, you'll find:
Today, Devi lives in a residential recovery program and is in the best mental health of her life. She published these entries to raise awareness, push for reform, and show others that there is no such thing as a hopeless case.
For readers of Girl, Interrupted and Brain on Fire, mental-health advocates, families navigating psychiatric care, and anyone who has felt lost in a system meant to help.
Content warning: this book contains strong language and references to suicide, self-harm, restraint, and graphic violence. If you are in crisis, call or text 988.
Scroll up and read her story.
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