Mentally ill inmates at Dade Correctional Institution have been tortured, abused and tormented for years, according to three former psychiatric unit employees, including a licensed mental health counselor who filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Justice.
George Mallinckrodt, who worked at DCI’s psychiatric unit from 2008 to 2011, filed the DOJ complaint after going to the prison administrator and getting nowhere. In the DOJ complaint, he described a series of episodes, including inmate Darren Rainey’s 2012 death, according to TheMiami Herald. Rainey’s death, apparently of burns from scalding water, was described in a Health News FloridasummaryMonday.
While Mallinckrodt was no longer employed by the prison at the time of Rainey’s death, a former colleague still working at DCI told Mallinckrodt of the incident. A current DCI corrections officer has told the Herald that prisoners in the mental health units were threatened with the shower treatment.
The shower handles were broken in the “on” position, with guards controlling water flow and temperature from a central shut-off valve, according to Mallinckrodt. In his letter to the Justice Department, Mallinckrodt said that guards regularly abused and tortured mentally ill inmates in the hopes of provoking a response, thus giving guards a reason to punish inmates.