Will Lawsuits and Exposés Lead to Reform of Florida’s Brutal Prisons?

Will Lawsuits and Exposés Lead to Reform of Florida’s Brutal Prisons? by Laura Cepero Florida's prisons have become notorious for their abuse and neglect of the people in their care. Now, as per an agreement between the Florida Department of Corrections (DOC) and the Disability Rights Group of Florida, the state will be overhauling its system of treatment for people with mental illness at the Dade Correctional Institution (Dade CI), located just south of Homestead, which houses the prison system’s largest mental health facility. Disability Rights filed a lawsuit against the DOC following a series of articles published by The Miami Herald during their in-depth investigation over the past year. According to The Herald, individuals in the Transitional Care Unit (TCU) at Dade CI were subjected to various abusive forms of punishment by guards, such as being locked into showers rigged to reach a temperature of 180 degrees, being forced to fight one another for the staff’s entertainment, and being given food that contained laxatives and even urine. A group nicknamed “The Diet Shift” allegedly gave out empty trays on a routine basis, in order to starve the people in their custody. Perhaps the most notable case of abuse is Darren Rainey. On June 23, 2012, Rainey, who was serving two years for cocaine possession and suffered from severe schizophrenia, was allegedly locked in the scalding hot shower while Officer Cornelius Thompson, Officer Roland Clark, and other guards taunted him. Rainey begged to be let out and after approximately two hours, he was dead. According to the Inspector General’s report, issued exactly two months later, the cause of Rainey’s death had not been determined. A fixed winged video was available, but the shower was not visible from the camera’s angle. In addition, the disc was damaged while being viewed in Windows Media Player. The report indicated that a new copy of the video was requested. Harold Hempstead, who is currently serving time for burglary, was an orderly at Dade’s TCU when Rainey died. Hempstead kept a diary detailing Rainey’s death, as well other suspicious deaths and instances of abuse by corrections officers. After filing several complaints that led to no disciplinary action, Hempstead turned to The Miami Herald. His journal is now in the hands of investigators. On September 11, 2012, Richard S. Mair, who was serving time for second degree murder, hanged himself in his cell. He left behind a suicide note detailing the abuses he witness at Dade Correctional, include Rainey’s death. Five days before his suicide, Mair also sent a letter to Governor Rick Scott’s Chief Inspector General, Melinda Miguel, who turned the investigation over to DOC inspector Michael Meaney. After just a month of investigation, Meaney closed the case based on the fact that Mair was “unavailable for a follow-up” interview. Other incarcerated people have made similar allegations. The Disability Rights Group of Florida has found evidence of others being subject to the scalding hot shower, among other abuses, that guards often targeted the most severely mentally ill, and the medical staff failed to report the abuses. According to The Miami Herald, former counselor Harriet Krzykowski stated that she suspected that security staff was abusing and starving people in custody. Krzykowski was told that “she might find herself alone in a dorm full of violent inmates with no officers to protect her” if she reported abuse. She also claimed that, in order to cover-up these incidents, corrections officers fabricated reports so that prisoners would be deemed the aggressors. DOC Inspector General Jeffery Beasley has been accused of covering up many of the DOC’s various alleged abuses. The state began investigating Beasley personally after four of his employees accused him of pressuring them to minimize cases that might give the agency a “black eye.” Read more of this post