By C1 Staff
TAMPA, Fla. — The 2-year-old death of a mentally ill inmate is casting new light on potential inmate abuse in the Florida prison system.
The Tampa Bay Times reports that inmate Darren Rainey was left for two hours in a shower/decontamination unit in 2012 with the hot water turned on full blast, allegedly as ‘punishment’ for not cleaning feces out of his cell.
Officers involved with the situation have been promoted and the investigation into the incident closed.
The officers involved in the incident were under the command of Warden Jerry Cummings, who was criticized and demoted six years ago for massive security flaws that ended in the fatal stabbing of CO Donna Fitzgerald.
Cummings was disciplined for a month following an investigation that showed the kitchen facilities were infested with rats and roaches, but not for Rainey’s death.
There have been seven other inmate deaths in the Florida prison system this year.
The DOC’s inspector general, Jeffrey Beasley, announced he would reopen the probe into Rainey’s death, but the investigation would focus on the operation of the agency’s showers and not whether any prison staff had committed possible wrongdoing.