Richard Ranson (born Daniel Shelby) is the son of Mother Shelby the victim of her cult, The Children of the Divine. Richard and the other kids under Mother Shelby would be trained by the adults in the cult to submit to rape by the adults and rape each other, even when they were family and usually under the influence of drug dependencies.
Richard killed the cult "nanny", Dolores Diamond, when Richard wanted to find Mother Shelby to murder her. Richard tried to commit suicide when he didn’t see any chance. However, while recovering from the failed suicide attempt, he confessed and was arrested at the hospital. He gave his testimony at Mother Shelby’s trial and helped in the successful conviction of murdering her son David with a drug overdose.
Richard was presumably institutionalized given his history of trauma before his own crimes. (L&O: "Sects")