Caged Crusader Shares Horrors from Florida Department of Corrections
Harold Hempstead blew the whistle on the Florida Department of Corrections, when he told the Miami Herald about the horrendous torture Darren Rainey had to endure before he was killed by guards at Dade Correctional Institution.
Rainey was serving a short stint for a minor drug offense when he was caged in a shower while boiling hot water scalded his body for hours until the skin peeled off of him. He died.
Although there were plenty of witnesses, the Miami-Dade state attorney ruled it an accident and didn’t prosecute the guards. For those who have been through the Florida criminal justice system – there are no surprises there!
Hempstead was eventually transferred to a prison in another state in an effort to censor him, but he’s not going to let Rainey’s death or the horrors of the Florida Department of Corrections go that easily. He is releasing a self-published book which this article describes as a portrayal of “a life lived in the pit of hell.”
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Here is the link to the official FDOC report of the inmate’s murder I mentioned in my first post in this forum. It’s heavily redacted in some areas making a true picture of events nearly impossible. Also, don’t read if you have a weak stomach or heart. Nobody deserves to die like that:
http://www.dc.state.fl.us/pub/mortality/PDF/165229.pdf
@Everyone
I went through the system a few years ago. I agree with about 80% of what I read in this article as I read it in its entirety. What I strongly disagree with and could be the unraveling of an otherwise well documented book is the “Allowing known Sexual deviants to touch children in the Visitors Park”. This is a Gross mudslinging towards the RSO community and I am intrigued that no one else commented on this within this community. DOC highly monitors visitation within their Grounds (in my experience).
Overall, I have personally had to deal with a ridiculous amount of PTSD and firsthand witness to atrocities committed by those in authority during my time incarcerated. Whereas I agree this is a good writing I don’t believe that stating blanket statements as hard facts for all facilities based on really bad experiences with a handful of facilities.
What is true is that there needs to be reform because the things that stay constant throughout all facilities are: Corruption, Lack of accountability (Good ole boy system), Lack of Humane treatment of all persons, Implement programs for societal reintegration.
The list is broader but this would be a fantastic start.
Anon for now
I have to agree with Anon in regards to the author’s recollection of sex offenders being allowed to touch children at the visitation park.
The DOC has a policy in place that does not allow sex offenders to have a child visit them if their sex offense was against someone under 16. So the author is suggesting that sex offenders were being allowed to touch other visitor’s children. I find this very hard to believe for many reasons that I don’t need to explain. I spent at least a weekend per month in a DOC visitation park for close to 4 years and never once saw any such behavior. Because my offense involved someone over 16 my three children visited me often and never once did anyone attempt to even talk to my kids.
I also read the entire article. I have no problem believing everything in it, based on my own experiences, besides the part about the visitation park.
I would love to see more of this post, but my computer is monitored and anytime I wish to have information or go to a website my PO who handles and reads all my emails offers up-or rather causes my computer to disallow information or websites they disapprove of by getting my browser to offer a message that says “the file cannot be downloaded because of a lack of connection”, but there’s nothing i myself have put in place on my computer has such an instruction. Nevertheless, Florida prisons are not the only ones in these United States where things like this post happen. I was at Elkton when something very similar happened not once but TWICE while I was there. To be sure I did not personally witness such an event, but inmates assigned to clean up staff offices overheard a couple of guards and other staff talking an awful lot about these incidents after the fact. Another place is at the metro lockup opposite the prison at Englewood, CO located actually in Littleton, CO. I was sent there in the spring of 2014 and witnessed a couple of guards refuse to stop a really viscious fight between two inmates at the Metro detention center, and made no move to call for backup to stop it.