Mentally Ill Inmate Murdered by Scalding

Murdered inmate Darrin Rainey (left), and whistleblower inmate Hempstead

Update: It should come as a surprise to nobody who follows cases about brutality and murders of mentally ill inmates in the United States that neither guard who participated in Darrin Rainey's death by scalding will face charges. Investigators determined that there is not enough evidence to charge the guards.

Original Article

While unscrupulous attorneys like Hezekiah Sistrunk are rewarded for defrauding clients to help a jail escape accountability for murdering a mentally ill black man under secret arrest, mentally ill blacks continue to be murdered while incarcerated in America. Darren Rainey, 50, was killed by scalding in Dade Correctional Facility, Florida. His death was similar to the one suffered by Jerome Murdough, in Riker's Island jail in February. Both black inmates died by extreme heat - the closest that correctional officers dared come to lighting a fiery cross and outright lynching them.

The Miami Herald released a report that is extremely disturbing to people who are not sociopaths about tortured and murdered mentally ill inmates. You might be able to hear Mary Neal and Bob Darby, advocates for mental health care, discuss the Miami Herald report at this link, unless prison investors censor ir:
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/humanrightsdemand/2014/05/22/bob-darby-advocate-for-the-homeless-mentally-ill

The Miami Herald article reports:

"In his complaint [to the U.S. Department of Justice], George Mallinckrodt, a psychotherapist assigned to the unit from 2008 to 2011, related a series of episodes, including the death of inmate Darren Rainey. The 50-year-old was placed in a small, enclosed, scalding-hot shower by guards and left unattended for more than an hour. He collapsed and died amid the searing heat, suffering severe burns when he fell, face up, atop the drain . . . Richard Mair [who died by hanging] left a suicide note in his shorts accusing guards of sexually abusing inmates and forcing black and white inmates to fight each other for the entertainment of staff . . . [P]rison guards made “sport’’ of agitating the mentally ill inmates, hoping for an excuse to beat or otherwise punish them. If the inmates threatened to file a complaint, the guards would tell them they could be written up for something they didn’t do, or confined to their cell 24 hours a day."

Reports about Rainey's murder and other abuses were sent to:
~ Warden Jerry Cummings
~ the inspector general
~ the U.S. Department of Justice
~ Gov. Rick Scott
~ the Miami Herald

In his letter to the Department of Justice, Mallinckrodt said that after Rainey’s death, a nurse called him saying she had overheard a corrections officer remark: “I don't think we can get away with this one” (Miami Herald).

In my experience, correctional officers will indeed get away with Darren Rainey's torture and murder. This is how America's mentally ill citizens are mistreated in jails and prisons throughout the country. The number of dead mentally ill inmates is very high, because their murders are not visible to the public like the fatal beating of Kelley Thomas was. Inmates' murders are frequently covered up by the government agencies that are paid by taxpayers to guarantee the safety of Americans with disabilities. 

Rather than taking action against the killers, the system is more likely to punish the whistleblowers. After his reports, George Mallinckrodt was fired by Corizon Health Inc., the outside company contracted to provide mental health services at the prison. Inmate Harold Hempstead, who initially reported Rainey's brutal murder, is left in the Dade Correctional Facility despite requests from his family to Gov. Scott for his transfer. Hempstead is being threatened with bodily harm for exposing how correctional officers "do business" there. The Miami Herald reports, "Two years later, no one has been charged [with Rainey's murder], and the Miami-Dade Medical Examiner’s Office has yet to complete an autopsy."

The failure to investigate and prosecute after Rainey's murder is typical of America's justice system. Nearly 11 years after my mentally ill brother's murder, the secret arrest and death of Larry Neal in Shelby County Jail in Memphis, Tennessee remains without investigation, and his family is denied any reports about his 18 days of secret incarceration and murder. Our requests for help have gone to a list of government officials, human and civil rights organizations, and media companies that is significantly longer than the list of help requests for Dade County prisoners. Like Mallinckrodt and Hempstead, the Neal family is persecuted for reporting Larry Neal's murder and and seeking justice. Furthermore, The (Johnnie) Cochran Firm, which pretended under contract to act as the Neal family's wrongful death attorneys, is frequently awarded for "excellence" by legal professionals who know about The Cochran Firm's racism and continuous frauds against its African American clients.

Media companies, the Better Business Bureau, and state bar associations refuse to report The Cochran Firm's frauds. The secrecy allows more families to be similarly defrauded so that prisons, jails, and municipalities save money on wrongful death civil actions. Unfortunately, the family of Jerome Murdough, an inmate who was baked to death in Riker's Island jail in February, is now represented by The Cochran Firm frauds. Censorship by media companies and cyber attacks against Internet communications ensure that families of murdered mentally ill inmates remain vulnerable to legal abuse. Censorship and terrorism against whistleblowers protect jails and prisons like Dade Correctional Facility and Shelby County Jail. For instance, mental health advocate Mary Neal hosted a radio show on May 19. Guests included two psychologists and one international human rights attorney to discuss America's high recidivism rate. Censorship prevents her from accessing the interview at Blogtalkradio. Please see if "they" will let you listen:
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/nnia1/2014/05/20/human-rights-for-prisoners-march

Government agencies totally disregard their responsibility to ensure the right to free speech about prison issues and the right to life for mentally ill Americans, especially prisoners. Murders of America's mentally dysfunctional people are crimes that are less prosecuted than dog abuse, especially if victims were African Americans like Darren Rainey, Larry Neal, and Jerome Murdough.

Florida and Tennessee are both death penalty states. To date, no policeman or correctional officer there has ever faced the possibility of capital punishment for the wrongful death of any citizens, although inmates' murders are common in those states and throughout the USA. Some people may believe the Dade Correctional Facility should be investigated by the U.S. Department of Justice and placed under federal overview to resolve its abusive treatment of mentally ill inmates. When Larry Neal was secretly arrested and murdered in Memphis Shelby County Jail in 2003, the jail was already under federal overview after investigation and lawsuit by the USA. Apparently, federal overview merely ensures suppression of news reports regarding such inmate murders and better surveillance, intimidation, and persecution of victims' families and others who are considered whistleblowers.

The Miami Herald is to be congratulated for its news reports regarding Darren Rainey's murder and ongoing brutality to other mentally ill inmates. A bill is before the U.S. Congress which would offer relief to mentally ill Americans, if it is passed: H.R.3717, the "Helping Families in Mental Health Crisis Act." The health care bill provides four important changes in how America's mentally ill citizens are treated:

1) Medicaid insurance for inpatient treatment in some facilities

2) assisted outpatient treatment (AOT) programs for subsistence assistance and mandated treatment

3) crisis intervention training for police and correctional officers

4) relaxed HIPPA laws, allowing families to know more about their sick relatives' condition and treatment

The abuses and murders of black mental patients like Neal, Rainey, and Murdough happen regularly throughout America, but Democrats are less likely than Republicans to support the congressional bill that would help. In fact, certain members of the Congressional Black Caucus recently withdrew their support from H.R.3717: Cedric Richmond (Louisiana) and Gwen Moore (Wisconsin). Leaving mental patients to continue to suffer homelessness, imprisonment, and avoidable deaths must seem more desirable to these lawmakers than making hospitalization and community treatment possible and properly training officers who are first responders or prison guards who are too often their caretakers. Nobody can punish the mentally ill into a state of sound-mindedness, and no one should be imprisoned for having a health disability. Please support H.R.3717, and replace expensive, abusive imprisonment with mental health treatment in the United States of America.

Four (4) References:

Staff at a Miami-Dade prison tormented, abused mentally ill inmates, former worker says
http://www.miamiherald.com/2014/05/19/4125544/staff-at-a-miami-dade-prison-tormented.html

Wrongful Death of Larry Neal
http://WrongfulDeathofLarryNeal.com

Beware of Treacherous Lawyers: The Cochran Firm
http://freespeakblog.blogspot.com/2013/01/beware-of-treacherous-lawyers-cochran.html

Helping Families in Mental Health Crisis Act - Rep. Tim Murphy
http://murphy.house.gov/helpingfamiliesinmentalhealthcrisisact

HOW YOU CAN HELP

Please join Harold Hempstead's family in requesting Governor Scott to immediately transfer the inmate who reported Rainey's murder to another facility and guarantee his safety. Also, please ask these people to stop flying helicopters over my house to terrorize me as I type articles advocating for justice and compassion for the mentally ill in America. Contact your congressional representatives and candidates and speak to them in favor of H.R.3717. Contact the United States Department of Justice and request an investigation of Dade Correctional Facility and Darren Rainey's murder in a scalding shower. Demand prosecution of all abusive correctional officers. Write to the Gate City Bar Association in Atlanta and to the Mass Torts Made Perfect (MTMP) Committee and object to their awards which were made to Hezekiah Sistrunk, Esq., president of The Cochran Firm frauds' law firm. Withholding justice to grieving black families is nothing to reward.

Repeat of the first three(3) paragraphs in this article:

While unscrupulous attorneys like Hezekiah Sistrunk are rewarded for defrauding clients to help a jail escape accountability for murdering a mentally ill black man under secret arrest, mentally ill blacks continue to be murdered while incarcerated in America. Darren Rainey, 50, was killed by scalding in Dade Correctional Facility, Florida. His death was similar to the one suffered by Jerome Murdough, in Riker's Island jail in February. Both black inmates died by extreme heat - the closest that correctional officers dared come to lighting a fiery cross and outright lynching them.

The Miami Herald released a report that is extremely disturbing to people who are not sociopaths about tortured and murdered mentally ill inmates. You might be able to hear Mary Neal and Bob Darby, advocates for mental health care, discuss the Miami Herald report at this link, unless prison investors censor ir:
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/humanrightsdemand/2014/05/22/bob-darby-advocate-for-the-homeless-mentally-ill

The Miami Herald article reports:

"In his complaint [to the U.S. Department of Justice], George Mallinckrodt, a psychotherapist assigned to the unit from 2008 to 2011, related a series of episodes, including the death of inmate Darren Rainey. The 50-year-old was placed in a small, enclosed, scalding-hot shower by guards and left unattended for more than an hour. He collapsed and died amid the searing heat, suffering severe burns when he fell, face up, atop the drain . . . Richard Mair [who died by hanging] left a suicide note in his shorts accusing guards of sexually abusing inmates and forcing black and white inmates to fight each other for the entertainment of staff . . . [P]rison guards made “sport’’ of agitating the mentally ill inmates, hoping for an excuse to beat or otherwise punish them. If the inmates threatened to file a complaint, the guards would tell them they could be written up for something they didn’t do, or confined to their cell 24 hours a day."

****

It would be illegal to keep a dog in a tight space 23 hours a day and gas or Taser him for barking. It would be illegal to put a dog in deadly restraint for control. But this happens to mentally ill Americans routinely in the nation's jails and prisons. What happened to Larry Neal?

Mentally Ill Americans Need Dog Justice. Treat mental illness medically, not legally. Advocate for U.S. Congress to pass H.R.3717 - Helping Families in Mental Health Crisis Act. Elect people who promote justice for all. Condolences to the family and close friends of Darren Rainey. Please join Harold Hempstead's family in requesting that Governor Scott immediately transfer the inmate who reported Rainey's murder to another facility and guarantee his safety.