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.

Indefinite Detention for Black Mental Patients

Two black men were denied a speedy trial in Mississippi for seven and eight years because they are African Americans with brain issues who lack wealth - the triple whammy. They are lucky to be alive, unlike many black mental patients who were killed during arrest attempts.

"Marktain Kilpatrick Simmons, 43 (pictured above), and Lee Vernel Knight, 47, both have mental issues and have been waiting years for a their day in court. Both Simmons and Knight are being held at the Hinds County Detention Center." This injustice was reported by "Your Black World" in an article at the link below

http://www.yourblackworld.net/2014/04/uncategorized/two-mississippi-inmates-are-still-awaiting-trial-after-7-and-8-years-breakingbrown-com/

Laws protecting citizens' rights don't necessarily apply to African Americans or the mentally ill of any race. Lengthy imprisonment with trials denied is a common practice in the USA, regardless of the "speedy trial" constitutional guarantee. Terrell Scott, a Pennsylvania mental patient, was imprisoned for 4.5 years with trial denied. He would undoubtedly still be incarcerated today if he had not finally agreed to make a false confession and accept a plea deal. Shannon Nyamodi, 20, has been incarcerated for nearly two years on false charges in North Carolina - most of the time in solitary confinement to torture him into making a false confession. Nyamodi is not mentally ill, but like mental patients, children are often intimidated into making false confessions. Nyamodi was arrested shortly after his 18th birthday, possibly to protect the real robber and shooter in his case, who is reportedly a white youth.
See "Maitri Klinkosum Blocks Shannon Nyamodi's Trial"
http://freespeakblog.blogspot.com/2014/03/maitri-klinkosum-blocks-nyamodi-trial.html

Americans are innocent until PROVED guilty in courts of law. There is obviously something wrong with the prosecutors' cases against the Mississippi men held indefinitely without trials, which is why trial is denied for them like it was for Terrell Scott. He was made a white woman's sex slave at the age of 17, then imprisoned on her false allegations when he left her and reported her neglect and abuse of her young children. Scott's child endangerment report was investigated, found credible, and Crystal's children were removed from her custody. Months later, Crystal retaliated by making a false criminal report against Scott, and justice officials gladly made a media event of Scott's arrest during an election year. Terrell Scott's real "crime was miscegenation (race mixing).

See "Teen Sex Slave Wrongly Arrested in PA"
http://dogjusticeformentallyill.blogspot.com/2013/11/teen-sex-slave-wrongly-arrested-in-pa.html

Many mentally ill Americans of all races either plea bargain or are tried and found guilty of crimes every year, then join 1.25 million other mentally ill people imprisoned in this country. The mentally ill should not be brutalized or killed while incarcerated in America's prisons and jails, either. But brutality and deaths are common among mentally ill people before and after incarceration. Three examples are below:

1) Terrell Scott endured brutal imprisonment for nearly five years while denied a trial. He lost his eyesight in one eye, hearing in one ear, and his jaw bone is misaligned from beatings by inmates. His front teeth were knocked out, and he was imprisoned in solitary confinement after his suicide attempt, which followed his rape and brutality that exposed him to HIV. Upon his release from prison, a reign of terror started against Scott's family. Because Scott finally confessed to having molested Crystal's children after he saw he would never be allowed to defend himself against the false charges in a trial, Pennsylvania decided to remove Scott's 10-year-old brother from his home to "protect" him from Scott. The family is currently fighting in family court for the right to remain an intact family. Can't the State realize it already has its pound of flesh? Terrell lived for four years with a white woman, but at this point, he's paid enough for his miscegenation.

2)  James Embry, Kentucky State Penn Inmate STARVES to death ~ "James Kenneth Embry, 57 and with just three years left on a nine-year sentence for drug offenses, began to spiral out of control in the spring of 2013 after he stopped taking anti-anxiety medication. Seven months later, in December, after weeks of erratic behavior — from telling prison staff he felt anxious and paranoid to banging his head on his cell door — Embry eventually refused most of his meals. By the time of his death in January of this year, he had shed more than 30 pounds on his 6-foot frame and died weighing just 138 pounds, according to documents reviewed by the AP."
http://news.yahoo.com/ap-exclusive-kentucky-inmate-starves-death-160028075.html

3) Larry Neal was a mentally ill heart patient who was secretly arrested in mid-July 2003 and detained until his death on August 1, 2003. Neither Shelby County Jail nor the United States Department of Justice release records and information to explain this kidnapping and murder. Prior to Larry’s final incarceration, whenever he was arrested on public nuisance charges and other misdemeanors related to his handicap, the police would contact his social worker or family and Larry would be released into their care. Given the long history Larry had with Memphis Police, it is impossible for Larry’s family to believe that Shelby County Jail did not know that Larry was under arrest during the nearly three weeks that his family agonized over his whereabouts. The police repeatedly denied having Larry in custody but did nothing to help search for the mentally ill heart patient precisely because police knew that no search was necessary. Fingerprinting for accurate identification is a routine part of arrest procedures. Yet, Larry’s family was allowed to spend weeks looking for Larry while he suffered and died in jail. One would assume that police became weary of their enforced role as caretaker to this man who would stand and sing loud on street corners, bother pedestrians for handouts, eat in grocery stores without paying first, etc., and decided to rid themselves of a "nuisance." His murder remains a national cover-up that the media will not report and the government will not address. See "Wrongful Death of Larry Neal" http://Wrongfuldeathoflarryneal.com

In addition to Sixth Amendment rights being set aside for mental ill Americans, so are other due process of law provisions. Mentally ill people's murders behind bars should be reported immediately to their families, unlike the family of Jerome Murdough, who was baked to death in Riker's Island prison. A reporter from Associated Press informed his family weeks after his death when he sought an interview. Neither Murdough's lawyer nor prison or state officials had informed his survivors of his demise. Cover-ups are common to hide murders and brutal treatment of mentally ill Americans under incarceration. See
APNEWSBREAK: NYC INMATE 'BAKED TO DEATH' IN CELL
http://bigstory.ap.org/article/apnewsbreak-nyc-inmate-baked-death-cell

Politicians who continually usurp funding for psychiatric treatment in order to keep the mentally ill revolving in and out of prisons and jails should not be reelected. Please see other stories about abuses of civil and human rights of America's mentally ill people in the index at Dog Justice blog on the right margin at http://DogJusticeforMentallyIll.blogspot.com

The Sixth Amendment right to a speedy trial should apply to every defendant and not be denied to persons based on race and health status. Laws against kidnapping and murder should not be set aside in cases of mentally ill victims. As Martin Luther King, Jr. said, "All we say to America is, 'Be true to what you said on paper.'" That has forever been a problem, especially regarding people of color.

Hear voices in support of H.R.3717 "Helping Families in Mental Health Crisis Act" that were recorded at "Assistance to the Incarcerated Mentally Ill" Blogtalkradio show on February 12 and at
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/nnia1/2014/02/13/assistance-to-the-incarcerated-mentally-ill

JAIL IS THE LAST THING THAT MENTAL PATIENTS NEED, AND TOO OFTEN, IT IS THE VERY LAST THING THEY EXPERIENCE. Please join our effort to decriminalize mental illness. No one deserves to be punished for having a disability.

Assistance to the Incarcerated Mentally Ill. Mary Neal, director.
http://www.care2.com/c2c/group/aimi

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 into a deadly restraint chair for control. But this happens to mentally ill Americans routinely in the nation's jails and prisons. What happened to Larry Neal? He was a black disabled man, and his wrongful death in police custody is covered-up rather than treated with due process of law because crisis intervention training started in Memphis, Tennessee, where Larry Neal was kidnapped and murdered in 2003. This proves that crisis intervention teams (CIT) alone will NOT prevent brutality and deaths, neither will CIT prevent people with serious mental illness from going into crisis and being arrested. ONLY treatment can help reduce the great number of mentally ill people and drug addicts revolving in and out of America's prisons and jails. Treatment is needed for persons with acute mental illness whether or not they agree to treatment. Assisted outpatient treatment (AOT) programs provide for mentally disabled people's subsistence assistance (food, housing) and mandate continuous mental health care.

Dog Justice for Mentally Ill
http://dogjusticeformentallyill.blogspot.com
Wrongful Death of Larry Neal
http://WrongfulDeathofLarryNeal.com

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