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MIAMI (CBSMiami) January 20, 2016 - He is known to Florida prison authorities as inmate #268866. According to court records, he is a 37-year-old convicted burglar who has served 14 years of a 165 year sentence, which he is currently serving at the Martin Correctional Institution in Indiantown, Florida. To some human rights advocates and Florida Department of Corrections observers, he is considered a hero, fearlessly fighting to expose abuses behind bars, particularly against the most vulnerable inmates suffering from mental illnesses. 
Harold Hempstead (Source: Michele Gillen/CBS4) His name is Harold Hempstead and in a rare television interview he met with CBS4's Chief Investigative Reporter Michele Gillen. "With this water coming out of the showerhead, it comes out with a lot, a lot of pressure, and it gets all this hot water at the bottom of the shower and it basically makes it, like it's a cooking shower," says Harold Hempstead, of the shower at the Dade Correctional Institution. "Basically it is boiling whoever is inside the shower." It is that belief that Hempstead says fuels his nightmares, imagination and mission. He is a Florida inmate who says he has spent the last three years of his life behind bars focused on trying to find out how and why Darren Rainey, an inmate who suffered from mental illness, died. A death, that followed the screams he says he heard of inmate Rainy begging to be let out of a prison shower stall, located just above his cell. Hempstead wrote a series of letters to CBS4 Chief Investigative Reporter Michele Gillen. He explained that he wanted to share with Gillen details of the night Rainey died and his efforts to expose conditions that he believes are abusive to mentally ill inmates, including Rainey. 
Some of the many letters written by Harold Hempstead to CBS4's Michele Gillen. (Source: Michele Gillen/CBS4) Charged with 38 counts of burglary, Hempstead is currently serving a sentence of 165 years at the Martin Correctional Institution in Indiantown, Florida. That is where is met with Gillen this past November. Gillen asked Hempstead why he, according to some, risked his own life "to keep his name out there, to demand investigations, to demand justice. Why do you care?" "Well probably because, I guess God allowed me to witness it," said Hempstead. To some observers, Hempstead's name is now synonymous with whistle blower in the Florida prison system. While heralded by many prison reform advocates as a hero, Hempstead has been laser sharp focused on finding answers behind Rainey's death. But Gillen sought to find out more about the inmate who some believe has and is risking his own safety to get to the truth. "You were how old when you were put into the system?" Gillen asked the now 39-year-old inmate. "Twenty-three," Hempstead responded as he began to reflect on his life. Born and raised in St. Petersburg, the youngest of two sons, Hempstead remains extremely close to the woman he considers his biggest supporter and ally today, his older sister, Windy. She says their father died when Harold was 7 years old, that their mother struggled being on her own, and that as children they were often cared for by relatives or in state care. "Did you ever think you would end up here?" Gillen asked Hempstead. "No. I never thought I would end up in prison, but there were a few people who said if you don't shape up you will," he responded. Hempstead was arrested and ultimately convicted for being the alleged mastermind behind a string of home burglaries in which several homeowner guns were stolen. He insisted he was not a burglar but admitted that he fenced stolen goods. His alleged partner in crime was sentenced to house arrest. Under State Guideline recommendations, the judge could have sentenced him to 65 years in prison but instead sentenced him to 165 years behind bars. In a Pinellas County court room in 2000, Circuit Judge Brandt Downey III told him, "You are a despicable human being. You do not deserve to ever again walk around as a free person. Hopefully you will die in prison." "Hundred sixty-five years in this case, what do you think about that sentence?" Gillen asked Randy Berg, the Executive Director of the Florida Justice Institute. "It's outrageous," reflected Berg who reviewed the CBS4 news investigative reports "The Witness" and discussed the case with Gillen. "Legislators are talking about smart justice. Well, this is about as un-smart justice as they come," said Berg. Judge Downey was later forced to retire for repeatedly screening pornography in chambers and infecting the court computer system. Even though there was no suggestion of impropriety in Hempstead's case, some observers now say, it is a case that deserves a second look. "Is there an irony there?" asked Gillen. "There certainly is an irony there. And it certainly makes one think that Harold Hempstead's case needs to be reviewed by someone else at this point in time," said Berg. Gillen asked Hempstead about the judge's alleged transgressions and fate. "It was definitely a shock, but I mean nobody was wanting to listen to that. I did raise some stuff in my court filings and they just didn't want to hear it," said Hempstead. CBS4 News has attempted to reach out to the retired Judge in Hempstead's case for comment but has not been able to locate him. The CBS4 news team will continue the search. Back in prison, Gillen asked Hempstead about the reality of his sentence. "Can you come to terms with what your sentence is for your crime?" asked Gillen. "Well a few years ago I keep stuff going in the court, but I looked upon it as that is you know whatever God wants for me now, I'm willing to accept that," said Hempstead. But speaking and reaching out from behind bars, he says, is not without danger or threats. After he reported alleged abuses, he said he was put on protective management - isolated from the general population and transferred from one prison to another. He says as word spread as to who he was, and what he claimed he witnessed, the threats began. One example he sites happened, he says, at the Reception and Medical Center, the RNC. He says he remembers the welcome one guard gave him. "Yeah, well I had my throat grabbed at RNC, he threatened to choke me if I didn't stop running my mouth," he reflects. "Harold is a good person. He cares for other people. That is what I got from him. He cared," said George Mallinckrodt. He worked as a psychoanalyst at the Dade Correctional Institution where Hempstead was incarcerated and where ultimately Rainey died after Mallinckrodt had left. Mallinckrodt says he was fired after he had tried to expose abuses against mentally ill inmates while working in the system. "I'm in fear for Harold Hempstead's life and if it were up to me, I would transfer him to a federal facility in Florida. He needs to be out of the DOC. His life is in danger," contends Mallinckrodt. Hempstead says he currently has no problems with staff the Martin Correctional Institution but the father of two says he would like to return to general population and be moved to a prison closer to his family. Meanwhile, he says he is fighting for answers and what he would consider justice in the Rainey death. "Harold, what would you like to have happen today?" posed Gillen. "Well I wish they would have filed an indictment or charging information today so I can rest from my constant years of writing letters, like 50 letters a month," he said. Not justice in the book of Harold Hempstead who appears determined to continue to try and shine light on prison conditions to help protect the most vulnerable incarcerated. "Harold Hempstead should be given a second chance. I would submit the governor ought to think about pardoning Harold Hempstead for what he has done for the citizens of the state of Florida," said Berg. CBS4 News reached out to the Florida Department of Corrections requesting an interview or response to the allegations made by Hempstead and to CBS4's findings. The department declined, providing this statement: "The death of Darren Rainey remains the subject of an open and active investigation being led by the Miami-Dade Police Department (MDPD). Until the investigation has been completed, any questions regarding the investigation or the circumstances of Mr. Rainey's death should be directed to the MDPD. Since the initiation of this investigation, the Florida Department of Corrections has worked collaboratively with the MDPD, the Miami-Dade County Medical Examiner's Office State Attorney's Office, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and United States Department of Justice. The Department will continue to fully cooperate with our law enforcement partners and employ all available resources to ensure that a thorough investigation is completed as expeditiously as possible." - Office of Communications/ Florida Department of Corrections CBS4 News reached out to the Miami-Dade Police Department who said Wednesday their investigation remains open and therefore declined an interview. CBS4 News has confirmed that the Darren Rainey autopsy report has been made available to the Miami-Dade Police Department. 
The Witness: The Story & Case Of Inmate Harold Hempstead - Part OneA 2-Part Exclusive Investigative Report & Web Extra
MIAMI (CBSMiami) January 19, 2016 - He is known to Florida prison authorities as inmate #268866. According to court records, he is a 37-year-old convicted burglar who has served 14 years of a 165 year sentence, which he is currently serving at the Martin Correctional Institution in Indiantown, Florida.
To some human rights advocates and Florida Department of Corrections observers, he is considered a hero, fearlessly fighting to expose abuses behind bars, particularly against the most vulnerable inmates suffering from mental illnesses.
Harold Hempstead (Source: Michele Gillen/CBS4) His name is Harold Hempstead and in a rare television interview he met with CBS4's Chief Investigative Reporter Michele Gillen. Their conversation began where the letters Hempstead wrote to Gillen left off. What did Hempstead hear the night one inmate died? It was a death that made headlines and may prove pivotal in the history of a beleaguered prison system. "He goes into the shower and what do you begin to hear? Tell me the words that you heard?" Gillen asked Hempstead. "It takes about a minute for the shower to get full hot, so once it's on full hot he started yelling 'Get me out of here, get me out of here' and kept kicking the door and kicking the door. He continued to yell 'It's hot, get me out of here' and was kicking and kicking and kicking," reflected Hempstead. Harold Hempstead said he is witness to screams that may shatter a code of silence which he believes conceals terror, torture, perhaps even, a deadly secret. "He was also yelling 'Get me out of here, it's hot! It's hot! It's hot," insisted Hempstead. They were the screams, he said, of severely mentally ill inmate Darren Rainey. 
(Source: Florida Department of Corrections) More than 3 years after his death, his body found allegedly scalded in a locked shower stall, the screams haunt Hempstead, an inmate whose name, some prison observers say, is now synonymous with whistle blower. "When I say the name Harold Hempstead what comes to mind to you?" Gillen asked George Mallinckrodt, the former prison psychotherapist to whom Hempstead reported early concerns about inmate abuse. Mallinckrodt says he also tried to get authorities to pay attention for which he claims he was ultimately fired. On Hempstead working behind bars to expose abuses? "A really courageous guy. I mean I was blown away," said Mallinckrodt who revealed, "I am on the outside and that doesn't even compare to what Harold Hempstead did on the inside. Because when you are facing daily threats of harm or death and you still go forward that is courage." Now housed at the Martin Correctional Institution, serving a sentence of 165 years in connection to a rash of burglaries, Hempstead wrote to CBS4's Chief Investigative Reporter Michele Gillen about the night an inmate lost his life.
Some of the many letters written by Harold Hempstead to CBS4's Michele Gillen. (Source: Michele Gillen/CBS4) "Bring me back to a critical night in the history perhaps in the State of Florida Department of Corrections," asked Gillen. "June 23rd, 2012 is the night that Darren Rainey was killed in the shower," began Hempstead who claims that the 50-year-old Rainey was brought to a particular shower stall from a different wing of the prison. That wing had its own showers but apparently not like the one Rainey was escorted to the night he died. According to Hempstead, Rainey passed within feet of his cell which was just underneath the shower. "When the front door opened I went to my door to look," recalled Hempstead. He said Rainy was escorted to this shower by a corrections officer who he said had taken a handful of other inmates to this particular stall in the months before. "And what was his demeanor when he was led into that shower?" asked Gillen. "He was just looking forward. He wasn't saying nothing or yelling," claimed Hempstead. Hempstead says he believes the shower was rigged to be controlled by staff on the outside with temperatures reportedly able to reach temperatures of 180 degrees. The alleged point: punishment for the most severe of mentally ill inmates in the transitional care unit of the Dade Correctional Institution, where Hempstead worked as an orderly. CBS4 News has repeatedly requested an interview with the Florida Department of Corrections for comment on Hempstead's allegations and responses to a series of questions raised by CBS4. The Department said it has declined comment due to ongoing investigations by the Miami-Dade Police and the Miami-Dade Medical Examiners Officer. (Department of Corrections complete statement is included below.) Hempstead said he can recall Rainey repeatedly saying, 'I'm sorry I can't take it no more. I won't do it again." Hempstead went on, "And he continued to restate those words and then the kicking started slowing down and then at 9:30 it sounded like he hit the wall and then his body fell. And then there was no more yelling." Gillen asked, "You've used the words that basically the shower was a torture chamber?" "It definitely was a torture chamber because it was used for the purposes of inflicting punishment," said Hempstead then added, "You have 11 working showers that you can't control the temperatures in but the only shower that they can control the temperature in, they put him in. They don't put him in a shower that he has to walk by; they take him to a shower 150 feet from his cell upstairs, the only shower that they can turn on full hot. It's the only shower in the blind spot," claimed Hempstead. It has been alleged that video capturing images of the wing and Rainey's last walk to the shower was somehow corrupted and not able to be viewed. "Correct," claimed Hempstead. "They say that it goes all the way up to.. guess the majority of what is out there is it goes right to when they put him in the shower and nothing else exists," Hempstead told Gillen. Not a surprise to Mallinckrodt. "Oh there were definitely blind spots when I worked there. Half the time the cameras weren't even working, they had malfunctioned," said Mallinckrodt. Hempstead says he wrote to the Miami-Dade Medical Examiner's office, along with other government and police authorities. He says he implored them to investigate, even asking them to study Rainey's feet. "I wrote the Medical Examiner's office, 'Look at the condition of his feet because I know he was barefooted because his shoes fell off'." Hempstead said he saw Rainey's naked body being removed and carried out on a stretcher just feet from him. "Were you able, in those glimpses of his going by, to tell anything at all? Whether his skin had been scalded?" asked Gillen. "It was definitely extremely marred and I could see something was, you know, I would say marred, I can't explain it because I've never seen nothing like it," said Hempstead. He said one Sergeant came and had the water temperature tested and reportedly announced, "It's 183-degrees, you have to disconnect the shower, if you don't disconnect the shower it could cost all of our jobs." Again, the DOC has not responded to any of our questions, pending ongoing investigations. He said another inmate was ultimately told to clean up the shower where Hempstead claims some of Rainey's skin was found. "I wrote approximately a dozen letters to Miami-Dade Police Department and also to the Medical Examiner's office," said Hempstead. Rainey's family had only been told that he died of a heart attack, according to family attorney, Milton Grimes. "So this just sat there for a year and a half with me writing letters and nothing being down about it until the people with the Herald decided to look into it a little bit further," Hempstead told Gillen. Indeed, CBS4 News partner the Miami Herald looked into the death of Darren Rainey and Hempstead's allegations, extensively. Their 2015 in-depth series The Caged Crusader chronicled Hempstead's journey and was credited by many prison observers with changes within high ranks of the system. But more than 3 years after his death, there are still no official answers as to what killed Darren Rainey. Miami-Dade police on Tuesday told CBS4 News that the homicide investigation remains open. And an autopsy report? CBS4 has contacted the Miami-Dade Medical Examiner's office about this issue for months, and they were continuously told there was no conclusion to the autopsy and that results were pending. "It's a very complicated case. I can't comment on it," Miami-Dade Medical Examiner Dr. Emma Lew, who conducted the autopsy, recently told CBS4 News. "Is that acceptable to you?" Gillen asked Hempstead. "No, If this was anybody other than who he was, I believe that this would have come right away. If this was somebody in society - but I've pushed this to everybody that because of who he was, mainly a prisoner, he's black, he's mentally disabled, he was a Muslim." He went on. "In my opinion his life is of no value to the majority of people, not everybody but the majority of people," said Hempstead. A life and death inmate #268866 says he refuses to forget. CBS4 News has requested an interview with the Florida Department of Corrections, asking for comment on a range of our findings and Hempstead's accusations. The DOC responded with the following statement. "The death of Darren Rainey remains the subject of an open and active investigation being led by the Miami-Dade Police Department (MDPD). Until the investigation has been completed, any questions regarding the investigation or the circumstances of Mr. Rainey's death should be directed to the MDPD. Since the initiation of this investigation, the Florida Department of Corrections has worked collaboratively with the MDPD, the Miami-Dade County Medical Examiner's Office State Attorney's Office, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and United States Department of Justice. The Department will continue to fully cooperate with our law enforcement partners and employ all available resources to ensure that a thorough investigation is completed as expeditiously as possible." - Office of Communications/ Florida Department of Corrections CBS4 News reached out again to the Medical Examiner's office Tuesday night and was told that results from an autopsy were pending approval from the Miami-Dade State Attorney's Office. 
I was asked to come on HuffPost Live to comment on my experience as a prison psychotherapist. The Human Rights Watch report regarding treatment of mentally inmates had just been published. Darren Rainey was mentioned in the report.
  CBS4 Investigates:
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Michele Gillen is chief investigative reporter at WFOR-TV, Miami, Florida. |
MIAMI (CBSMiami) - If you ask mental health counselor George Mallinckrodt about prison inmates suffering from mental illness he will quickly share this message.
"They shouldn't be taunted, tormented, beaten and killed."
This week Mallinckrodt sat down with CBS4 Chief Investigator Michele Gillen to discuss the treatment of mentally ill inmates housed at the Dade Correctional Institute in Homestead. He shared what he says he observed and what he says he has reported to the U.S. Department of Justice.
First on his list of behavior that he said sickened him were guards agitating inmates with compromised mental capacity. For what reason, Gillen asked.
"For fun, great sport," recalled Mallinckrodt as he saw it.
A certified psychotherapist, Mallinckrodt worked in the Transitional Care Unit for two years. He said he reported to prison and state authorities a story told to him by one inmate back in 2010 of being beaten by guards. The inmate even showed him evidence.
"He actually pulled up his shirt and he was bruised all over the place, they had kicked him in his legs, his arms," said Mallinckrodt. "I couldn't sit on the sidelines. I filed a report in Tallahassee with the Inspector General. I also filed a report in the prison itself."
Gillen asked if anyone from the Inspector General's Office or from law enforcement ever contacted him in response.
"Nothing, zero", said Mallinckrodt.
After he was terminated, he said he learned of a death.
"A year later an inmate was killed," Mallinckrodt told Gillen.
That inmate was 50-year old Darren Rainy. He was found dead after being taken to a reportedly scalding hot shower and locked in it. Records confirm only guards had access to the water controls. Reports indicate he had "visible trauma" to his entire body.
CBS4 News obtained the medical examiner's report on Darren Rainy two years after his death. It lists no cause of death has been determined. The Miami-Dade Medical Examiner's Office told the investigative team that the cause of death is still under investigation.
"I mean there are a lot of failures here Michele, it's inexcusable, this is a horrific death by any account, just absolutely horrific and it's the tip of the iceberg," says Randy Berg, the Director of the Florida Justice Institute, a legal prison rights advocacy organization.
Berg said without a conclusion from Medical Examiner, investigations into the incident seemed to be stalled.
"It all starts with the Medical Examiner's report not being done," said Berg who added that it was "totally unacceptable."
"If this were a child who was scalded with hot water, there would have been a human outcry and an immediate autopsy report that would have been done but since this is a mentally ill prisoner, in a state institution, out of sight, out of mind, no one knew about it, no one cared," said Berg.
When Miami-Dade Commissioner Sally Heyman heard about Rainy's death she said it left her "nauseous, it actually made me sick and also sad, very sad. It is unacceptable."
A death and lack of answers that should trigger state and local investigations, she added.
"That's why I hope our State Attorney Kathy Fernandez Rundle will convene a grand jury to investigate. How our system, the correction system, treats the mentally ill," said Heyman.
A landscape ever the more chilling, according to Judge Steve Leifman who chairs the Florida Supreme Court task force on mental health.
"It sounds like a horror movie that would never happen in the United States. But unfortunately when it comes to people with mental illnesses, they are almost treated sub human and it has to stop," said Leifman.
Beginning with unearthing the facts of what happened at the Dade Correctional Institution.
Mallinckrodt said after reporting multiple incidents and finding conditions increasingly tough to work in, he was fired. He said he was told it was because he took some long lunches. He said he would never go back to work there but will not forget the inmates and continues to search for answers.
The Department of Corrections said it cannot comment on open investigations but works to ensure the safety of all inmates.
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