Mentally Ill Man Tortured In Hot Shower; Death Ruled Accidental

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Prison officers in Miami have managed to evade any charges in the wrongful death of Darren Rainey. On June 24, 2012, the 50-year-old man had only one month left in his sentence at Dade Correctional Institution for cocaine possession. That day, he defecated in his cell and prison guards locked him in a shower cell.

According to the NY Daily News, for the next two hours, the officers had scalding hot water–up to 180 degrees blasted onto Rainey who begged and pleaded for the punishment to stop.

Harold Hempstead, an inmate at Dade Correctional Institution was housed directly underneath the shower where he could overhear the entire incident. Guards also gave Hempstead a bottle of bleach and had him clean up the shower where Rainey took his last breaths. Hempstead told reporters that large chunks of Rainey’s skin were found throughout the shower which he placed in the deceased man’s shoe.

The autopsy reports seems to confirm Hempstead’s account. The term “slippage” was used to describe the skin that had seemingly melted off Rainey’s body due to “prolonged exposure to water, humidity and the warm, moist environment.”

A nurse that eventually performed CPR on Rainey notated his internal temperature at 102 degrees, well above the average body temperature of 98.6. The autopsy also details that 12 hours after his death, Rainey’s body temperature was still 94 degrees.

It’s taken three years since his death the Miami-Dade Medical Examiner’s autopsy report, to conclude that Rainey died from complications of schizophrenia, heart disease and “confinement” in the shower. Within that time, the shower cell where Rainey died was subsequently destroyed.

Supposedly, a federal criminal investigation is also continuing into Rainey’s death. The Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office has yet to determine if the officers who subjected the mentally-ill man to the shower will face any charges such as manslaughter.

The death on Darren Rainey is the latest instance of the troubled facility being associated with reports of abuse and unsanitary conditions. In an interview with the Miami Herald, Hempstead shared that he isn’t surprised that the officers who abused Rainey would not face charges.

“Obviously his life was of no value because he was a black, poor, mentally disabled, Muslim prisoner,” he said. “The decision shows that Black lives don’t matter.”

SOURCES: NY Daily News, Miami Herald

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