Guards Who Allegedly Killed Mentally Ill Prisoner With Scalding Hot Shower Won’t Be Charged

In 2014, four prison guards were accused of killing one of their inmates in one of the most brutal ways imaginable. 50-year-old Darren Rainey, who was charged with cocaine possession and sent to the Dade Correctional Institution in 2012, was allegedly thrown in a shower with scalding hot water for two hours, which resulted in his death. The temperature of the water was very near the boiling point at 180 degrees.

Other inmates at the facility claim that they could hear Rainey’s screaming and begging to be let out of the shower. A nurse at the prison claims that there were burns on 90% of his body, and that his skin fell off when touched. Six inmates at the facility have claimed that the shower was routinely used to punish inmates, especially if they were mentally ill. Rainey himself was diagnosed with schizophrenia.

However, those claims weren’t enough to charge the guards who forced Rainey into that shower. State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle announced last week that there was no evidence that the shower killed Rainey, so charges against them were dropped. Despite the claims of medical staff at the prison, the attorney stated that “The evidence does not show that Rainey’s well-being was grossly disregarded by the correctional staff.”

Rundle’s office claimed that what were seen as burns on Rainey’s body, were more likely to be signs of decomposition. She also stated that the eyewitness testimony from the inmates at the prison could not be trusted because their claims were inconsistent. Unfortunately there is no physical evidence of what happened. According to Rainey’s family, they were pressured to quickly cremate his body after the incident.