Florida's prison chief says he's implementing system-wide reforms following the death of Darren Rainey. (Photo by Lonny Paul)

Florida’s prison chief says he’s implementing system-wide reforms following the death of Darren Rainey. (Photo by Lonny Paul)

By Ashley Lopez
Florida Center for Investigative Reporting

After months of scathing reports, Florida’s Department of Corrections announced it will begin implementing a series of reforms within the state’s prisons. The changes are aimed at improving how guards treat mentally-ill inmates, as well as increasing transparency in instances where things go wrong.

The changes follow reporting by The Miami Herald, where reporter Julie Brown wrote that a group of whistleblowers claimed “mentally ill inmates at Dade Correctional Institution have been tormented and abused for years.”

According to the Herald, three former employees of the psychiatric unit at Dade Correctional complained that staff at the facility were tormenting and abusing mentally-ill inmates for “sport.”  One of the former employees even took his complaints to the U.S. Department of Justice last month.

At the heart of George Mallinckrodt’s complaint was the gruesome death of a man named Darren Rainey.

Rainey died at Dade Correctional after being left in a confining scalding hot shower by guards for two hours. According to the Herald, no one at the prison was held accountable for the man’s death.

After that reporting, other people came forward and more complaints were filed—and human rights groups called on the federal government to investigate what happened at Dade Correctional.

Now, the state’s prison chief has promised system-wide reforms.

According to the Herald:

Department of Corrections Secretary Mike Crews called the changes “a huge first step” — the reforms include special training for corrections officers and having outside investigators handle prison deaths. Crews also vowed to create a more-professional atmosphere within Florida’s 100,000-inmate prison system, even as he insisted that the vast majority of prison employees perform their jobs honorably.

“Ninety-nine percent of them…they do the right thing, because it’s the right thing to do,” Crews said.

…As part of the package of reforms being implemented, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement will now investigate all prison deaths that are not from natural causes. Crews said there are 82 of those cases currently being looked at, but he could not provide more details as why these prisoners are dying. He did say that, starting five weeks ago, there is a new procedure where the warden of a prison will call him directly to discuss any prison deaths, and that more information will be available as the department discusses those deaths with FDLE. The goal, he said, is “to make sure that a death is never routine.”

According to Crews, the department will also:

• Expand its crisis intervention training for corrections officers “so they don’t unintentionally escalate an incident or hurt an individual with our use-of-force techniques.”

• Develop specialized reentry centers for inmates who suffer from mental illness. One will be at Everglades Correctional in Miami-Dade, which was the site of Wednesday’s news conference.

• Create a “transparency database” for disseminating information on inmates who die in the custody of the department.

However, the Herald notes that there are still unanswered questions surrounding what happened to Rainey.

According to the paper, there is “still no conclusion” to the ongoing investigation into what happened to Rainey and whether anyone will be held accountable.

The two guards involved in that incident recently resigned but were not fired because the state’s investigation has not concluded yet.

Besides mistreatment of inmates, there were also allegations that staff at the prisons were pressured not to speak up when they knew something was wrong, and that complaints from prisoners were routinely disregarded. However, according to the Herald, Crews disputed that depiction during a press conference.