Mentally Ill Florida prisoner died after locked into a 180-degree shower by prison guards
On June 23, 2012 Darren Rainey, a 50-year-old mentally ill state prison inmate in Miami-Dade County, died after guards responded to his defecating in his cell by locking him into a 180-degree shower for two hours—at which point his skin was separating from his body. Local police, and the state, failed to properly investigate. The case was only brought to light in recent months by The Miami Herald. After two years, no one has been held criminally accountable, or even charged.
Darren was serving a two-year sentence for drug possession and housed in a psychiatric unit. After his death, guards forced another prisoner, Mark Joiner, to clean up the shower where Darren died, including chunks of skin.
“He was crying, please stop, please stop, Joiner said. And they just said “Enjoy your shower, and left.”
Only the U.S. Department of Justice can properly investigate this terrible crime, and a broader culture of abuse in Florida’s prisons that has led to other unnecessary deaths, and which falls especially hard on the mentally ill.
Petition by Steven Wetstein
Miami, FL
