ROCHESTER, N.Y. — Clorinda Spears was waiting at the Greyhound bus station in Rochester on Saturday night for her daughter, Takesha Rogers, to arrive from a federal prison in Texas. But Rogers never got off the bus.

“I just had this feeling that she wasn’t going to make it back here because of me knowing what state of mind she was in,” Spears said.

Rogers was released from Carswell Federal Prison in Fort Worth, Texas on Friday. It’s a medical prison for women, including those with mental health issues. The prison gave Rogers $120 and a bus ticket for the 1,400-mile trip home to Rochester.

“I said, see I told you that she wasn’t capable of getting on that bus because of her mental issues,” Spears said.

Berkeley Brean, News10NBC Chief Investigative Reporter asked Spears, “Knowing your daughter the way you do and the issues she deals with, do you think she should have been put on a bus from Dallas to Rochester?”

“No, I don’t think she should have been put on a bus because of harming her own self,” Spears replied.

Late Tuesday, Spears learned her daughter made it only 80 miles. Police found Rogers having a mental breakdown in Sulphur Springs, Texas. They took her to a state hospital outside Dallas. All this time, her mother had no idea where she was.

“It is unconscionable and unsurprising,” said Catherine Sevcenko with The National Council for Incarcerated and Formerly Incarcerated Women and Girls. “To put her on a Greyhound bus to go 1,400 miles with $120 I think you said in her pocket, I mean is a huge thing to ask of anyone and certainly not something someone in a fragile state, a situation they should not be put into.”

Berkeley Brean: “Is there, are you aware of any effort to change this? To stop it?”

Catherine Sevcenko: “I think your reporting is a wonderful first step. Like all government agencies, the Bureau of Prisons reacts when the public reacts.”

News10NBC emailed the Federal Bureau of Prisons and asked if there is a policy on putting newly released inmates with a history of mental illness on a bus, but has not received a response yet.

Two years ago, Rogers jumped over a fence and got into a secured area of the Rochester airport. She pled guilty but violated her release last fall and was sent to prison in Texas. Before that, she was arrested for several arsons and fighting a Rochester police officer. She has serious issues but no outstanding warrants. Her mother says she wanted to be in Rochester.

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