HOW DADE C.I. TCU STAFF DENIED MENTALLY DISABLED INMATES FOOD AS A FORM OF PUNISHMENT

"Over the approximately two years I worked in the Dade C.I. Transitional Care Unit (TCU) I discovered that one of the most common forms of unlawful punishment Dade C.I. staff subjected mentally disabled inmates to was denying the patients food.  It was very  common on all the shifts to deny inmates one to three of their meals a day.  Dozens of security staff used to commonly do the foregoing.   There were times I seen twenty to twenty-five inmates denied a meal in one day.  This caused a lot of inmate-patients to lose large quantities of weight in the TCU in short periods of time.  In two of my other blogs, I explained how Oscar Davis and Darrell Richardson, I believed, died from medical problems associated with being denied large quantities of food/starved over long periods of time.  The Miami Herald newspaper referenced Dade C.I. TCU mentally disabled inmates being denied large quantities of food as punishment in several of the articles they published.  In April, 2016 The New Yorker magazine published an article entitled ‘Madness’ which also mentions the foregoing.  George Mallinckrodt who was a counsellor in the Dade C.I. TCU spoke about inmate-patients being denied large quantities of food in his book ‘Getting Away With Murder.’  This long-term abuse/torturing by denying mentally disabled inmates large quantities of food/starvation was happening in the same Dade C.I. TCU Darren Rainey was murdered in.  

Will you please share this blog with your friends and with anybody you believe would like to join us in our fight for the value of life.  Please also sign our petition on Change.org entitled THE LIFE OF BLACK, MENTALLY DISABLED MUSLIM PRISONER DARREN RAINEY DOES MATTER."

Harold Hempstead, a.k.a. The Caged Crusader, Tennessee D.C. May 2017
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Notes: C.I. stands for Correctional Institution. TCU means Transitional Care Unit. The picture of the starving prisoner is from the American Civil War, over 150 years ago. Seemingly little has changed and prisoners are still being starved in US prisons to this day.

WHY ISN’T DARRELL RICHARDSON ON THE FDC INMATE MORTALITY LIST FOR DADE CORRECTIONAL INSTITUTION?

I recently received a copy of the inmate mortality list for Dade C.I. for the years 2000 - 2017.  When I was reading the names on the list I was shocked to see Darrell Richardson’s name on the list.  In 2011 when I first seen black, mentally disabled inmate Darrell Richardson he was about 185 pounds of muscle.  I was told he was in prison for killing two or three people and believe that he alleged Oprah Winfrey told him to do it.  Darrell Richardson got Dade C.I. TCU security staff mad by always refusing to eat his food quickly and give his food tray back at meal times.  After security staff made several attempts to get Darrell Richardson to comply with their orders to eat quickly and give them back the food trays when he was done eating and Richardson continued to give them problems with complying, they started placing his food in a styrofoam tray.  After the styrofoam tray treatment didn’t work they started removing food from Darrell Richardson’s tray.  They told him when they gave his tray to him with food missing from it that they removed food from it because he wasn’t eating quick enough so that meant there was too much food on the tray.  As Richardson continued to not eat quickly and not return his styrofoam trays after meals, security staff decided they’d start withholding trays from him when they didn’t have time to get the styrofoam tray back from him.  

In other words, when security staff knew prior to feeding a meal, they wouldn’t have enough time to deal with getting Richardson’s tray back from him, they just wouldn’t feed him.  This was the treatment Richardson received for several months.  How do I know this?  Because I was the orderly serving the meals with security staff and because of my personal relationship with staff.  The last time I seen Richardson (like Oscar Davis) was the day he was leaving the Dade C.I. TCU.  He appeared to me to weigh under 120 pounds.  He was so weak he had to be pushed in a wheelchair out of the Dade C.I. Transitional Care Unit.  Darrell Richardson was the second inmate that I knew from Dade C.I. TCU that I believe died from a medical problem that came about as a result of being denied a large quantity of food on a daily basis for several months.  I believe the security staff that used to deny Richardson food caused his death and are liable for murder if the extreme lack of food led to a medical condition that caused his death.  Even though Richardson was a murderer who was a headache to Dade C.I. security staff, they had no right to deny him food as punishment.  His mental disability is what caused him to be as he was.  What is right is right and what is wrong is wrong.  The law mandated that security staff give Darrell Richardson three full meals a day.  They didn’t follow the law.  Richardson was a mentally disabled, black inmate.  The Florida of Corrections swept what happened to Richardson under the rug  and attempted to hide the Darrell Richardson case by not listing him on the inmate mortality list for Dade C.I.  I wonder how many more inmates are not on the inmate mortality list that died at Dade C.I. or who Dade C.I. staff were behind the deaths of.  I advised the Department of Justice of these matters concerning Darrell Richardson.  Also, I filed FDC grievances on what happened to Oscar Davis and Darrell Richardson.  This is another case that the Dade County Florida Medical Examiner, MDPD and Dade County State Attorney covered up.  Why?  Because just like with Darren Rainey and Oscar Davis, Darrell Richardson was a mentally disabled black inmate and to these agencies his life didn’t matter.  

My dear friends, we are just starting.  There is a lot to discuss.  Darrell Richardson was denied food as a punishment in the same Dade C.I. TCU Darren Rainey was killed in.  

Will you please share this blog with your friends and anybody you believe would like to join us in our fight for the value of life.  We need your help.  You can make the difference.  Please sign our petition on Change.org called THE LIFE OF BLACK, MENTALLY DISABLED MUSLIM PRISONER DARREN RAINEY DOES MATTER.

Caged Crusader

OSCAR L. DAVIS - A DEAD INMATE WHO I WITNESSED BE DENIED DOZENS OF MEALS OVER A SEVERAL-MONTH PERIOD

In 2011 when I arrived at the Dade C.I. Transitional Care Unit (TCU) there was a blind, mentally disabled inmate there named Oscar Davis.  Oscar Davis was highly disliked by all of the staff and most of the inmates because of the charges he was incarcerated on and because he was very loud and disrespectful.  It was alleged that he was in prison for raping a senior citizen and that he also dug out his own eyes.  When I was an orderly in the Dade C.I. TCU I was the inmate who held the trays of food and gave the trays to the inmates during meal times.  The inmate-patients were locked in their cells during meal times.  The only way I could give the inmate-patients a tray was if security opened the food flaps for me to give the inmates their trays of food.  If security didn’t want to feed an inmate-patient, they wouldn’t open the inmate’s food flap.  This was done so much that it was common sense that the inmate-patients in the cells that didn’t have the food flaps opened, weren’t being fed.  

In 2011, one of the inmates that I witnessed be denied the most food was Oscar L. Davis.  He was denied one to two meals a day (and sometimes three meals a day) for the months I knew him between April and December 2011.  I watched his physical health get worse.  I remember the day mental health specialist Dr Cesar told me Oscar Davis was taken to an outside doctor and that doctor said Davis was missing the type of vitamin in his body that allowed the doctor to know he was being denied large quantities of food.  Dr Cesar then asked me if Oscar Davis was being fed.  I told Dr Cesar to listen to what the outside doctor said.  I also remember when security told me Oscar Davis was dying on the day he left the Dade C.I. TCU.  Finally, I remember about two weeks after Davis left the Dade C.I. TCU, security telling me that Oscar Davis died.  

Since 2011 I’ve believed that Oscar Davis being denied so much food contributed to his death.  Am I wrong to believe that if the extreme lack of food caused Davis to have a medical condition that killed him, then those who denied Davis so much food killed him?  Please tell me what you think.  I’ve shared this issue with the Department of Justice and others.  Oscar Davis was the first inmate that I knew, while at Dade C.I. TCU, who I believe staff killed.  I admit I don’t have as much evidence on Oscar Davis as I do Darren Rainey, but I still think the extreme denial of food led to Davis dying.  What happened to Oscar Davis was swept under the rug by the Florida Department of Corrections and covered up by the MDPD, Dade County Medical Examiner and Dade County State Attorney.  How they seen it, Oscar Davis was a poor, black, mentally disabled inmate in prison for raping a senior citizen.  I believe what is important is not who Oscar Davis was but that right is right and wrong is wrong.  Nobody has the right to starve or kill somebody just because they don’t like them.  We have to have an objective standard on the value of life and not a subjective standard.  We must say the lives of all people matter, no matter their nationality, race, religion, creed, or position in this World.  Anything less is an attack on the value of life.  Oscar Davis was denied large quantities of food as punishment in the same Dade C.I. TCU Darren Rainey was killed in.  Please share this blog with your friends and anybody you believe would like to join us in our fight for the value of life.  Please sign our petition on Change.org called THE LIFE OF BLACK, MENTALLY DISABLED MUSLIM PRISONER DARREN RAINEY DOES MATTER.

Caged Crusader

Theo Blackmore Open Letter On Death And Politics

To:  Theo Blackmore, Liberal Democrat Party, Penzance, West Cornwall, Britain.
Dear Theo,
I've known you for many years and I consider you a friend so I was happy to hear of you standing as a Liberal Democrat Party local councillor and thought you had a good chance of getting voted in.  Back in February you came to my door with some of your Party colleagues, including a lady in a wheel-chair who I believe you said was a Baroness.  We talked briefly and I took some literature from you and also briefly described my work on the Rainey case.  Darren Rainey was the mentally-disabled Muslim who the Florida jail-guards Clarke and Thompson etc., steamed to death in a torture-chamber in the mental wing of Dade prison, Florida.  Your colleagues were very interested in what I had to say on the Rainey case and it was agreed between us all that I would forward material on the case to the Baroness - via you.
I sent spent some time writing you an email with several links to information on this matter on 14th February. 
Receiving no reply from you, I sent the same message on 15th March.
Receiving no reply from you, I sent a message on 18th March asking if you had received the others.  I was using the email address from your propaganda leaflet, so presumably you monitor it.
Receiving no reply from you I re-sent the message of 18th March again on 20th March.
Receiving no reply from you I became somewhat pissed off.
Meeting you on the road some weeks back I explained all this to you and you said you would respond.
Receiving no response from you, I became disillusioned. 
Voting day came round and you didn't get in, it was won by corrupt Tory Roger Harding, the car-salesman who chops down protected woodlands for a hobby.  It seems doubly sad and ironic that Roger won.  If only you had communicated with me as you said you would, you could have helped the human rights crisis in USA and I could have given you loads of dirt on Roger Harding.  These people, these Tories, these Conservatives are so openly corrupt, it's quite easy to collect good evidence on them.  I could have helped you demolish that corrupt joker, but instead, we're saddled with more years of right-wing, capitalist, austerity and general malaise.  Shame. 
From long years of unpaid political activism I've learned one thing.  Most of your time, if you are a writer, rather than a thrower of bricks, is spent chasing evasive politicians who do not like to get embroiled in various human rights and legal conundrums and crises that people like me constantly throw at them.  Rather than having the honesty to just say 'go away', most of these politicians will lead you into a time-wasting dance that can go on for years.  This was well-known to Charles Dickens in the nineteenth century who devoted a chapter of Little Dorritt to the 'Circumlocution Office' of the British Government, where they basically just fuck you around and play little tricks on you...  Well, while I'm dealing with the Circumlocution Office, people are getting their heads kicked in in Florida and in every state of the union where people are herded into cages like animals and tormented in the name of the law.  They are dying of starvation, dehydration, injuries, medical neglect, medicinal poisonings and many other forms of torture, cruel, unusual, degrading and inhumane treatment.  Which is why I hate having to spend hours writing chasing-messages to people who promise to respond and then fail to.
The information you said you would pass to your Party colleagues concerns an American prison that has descended to the level of a kind of death-camp.  The State has already admitted liability in the case, including torture and multiple fatalities.
Since discussing this issue with you in February, the State of Florida has found 'no wrong-doing' in the killing of Darren Rainey.  For those of us fighting to bring justice for a dead, black Muslim and the other disabled people and blind people being starved to death in the Amerikan prison system, the last thing we need is politicians wasting our time with false promises of help.
To earn the people's respect, and votes, politicians have to do what they say they are going to do.
Sincerely,
Jeremy Schanche



P.S.  I made a critical remark about your politics to my mother who told me to "shut up" and slammed the phone down on me.  She hasn't spoken to me since...

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Read how Florida's 'Caged Crusader' speaks out courageously for the rights of the disabled inmates incarcerated in the Florida Department of Corrections.  Harold Hempstead has been putting his safety in jeopardy to publicize the torture of mentally and physically disabled convicts by prison staff who are confident in getting away 'Scott' Free with their crimes - which include murder.

DANIEL GEIGER - THE FIRST INMATE PLACED IN THE SHOWER AS PUNISHMENT THAT KILLED DARREN RAINEY

"From the beginning I explained to the Miami-Dade Police Department (MDPD) that Daniel Geiger was the first mentally disabled inmate placed in the shower (Rainey was killed in) as a torturing device, and easily the most mentally disabled inmate I witnessed get placed in the shower as punishment.  Just prior to Geiger leaving the Dade C.I. TCU to go to Lake C.I. TCU I witnessed him eating his own faeces.  I don’t believe Geiger was ever in touch with reality when I knew him in the Dade C.I. TCU.

In 2012 Geiger was transferred to Lake C.I. TCU.  I was told that in the end of 2016 Geiger was found dead in the Lake C.I. TCU.  I don’t know anything about Geiger’s death, I just know he died.

When I was reading the Dade County, Florida State Attorney’s 3/17/17 memorandum stating they aren’t going to prosecute Rainey’s killers, I noticed that it said that the MDPD attempted to interview Geiger.  Page 36 of the State Attorney’s memorandum provides a synopsis of MDPD’s attempt to interview Geiger.  The synopsis says Geiger appeared despondent, that Geiger didn’t appear to fully understand the questions and that he was adamant that he was never incarcerated at Dade C.I., but this synopsis contends that the interview was done at Dade C.I.  In other words, Geiger didn’t know he was at Dade C.I. when the interview was being done.  (I guess Geiger returned from Lake C.I. to Dade C.I. sometime prior to this interview and sometime after this interview he transferred to Lake C.I. again.)

By reading this synopsis on page 36 of the Dade County Florida State Attorney’s memorandum, you can see that Geiger was severely mentally disabled when the MDPD tried to talk with him.  However this fact didn’t stop the Dade County State Attorney from citing Geiger like she was citing a mentally-stable man.  To be specific, on page 69, first paragraph, last sentence of the State Attorney’s memorandum it states “Geiger said he was unaware of the shower being used for punishment or torture.”  

Do you think it’s right that the Dade County Florida State Attorney cited Geiger like he was a stable inmate?  Let’s think about this:  when the MDPD interviewed Geiger at Dade C.I. they said he appeared despondent, did not appear to fully understand the questions and was adamant that he was never incarcerated at Dade C.I.  To me it’s outrageous that the State Attorney cited Geiger like he was mentally stable.  The mentally unstable shouldn’t have their words used against them, and they should be given more protection because they are mentally unstable.  

Do you believe it’s right for the police to ask severely mentally disabled people if they were victimized and when they give some kind of answer that can be interpreted as ‘no,’ that the police and State Attorney use that answer against them and let the suspect get away that harmed them?  Shouldn’t the police and State Attorney use witnesses and other types of evidence to prove the crime(s)?  

Another thing that I find outrageous is not only that the State Attorney cited a mentally unstable man like he was stable, but she also cited a dead man.  Yes, Daniel Geiger died several months prior to the State Attorney releasing their memorandum.  

If you look at Martin Christianson’s statement on page 41 of the State Attorney’s memorandum you’ll read that the State Attorney told us what Christianson’s statement was, but also told us that Christianson was deceased.  The State Attorney didn’t tell anybody that Geiger was deceased.  Why do you think the State Attorney did this?  

Please share this blog with your friends and anybody you think can help us with getting justice for Darren Rainey.  Please sign our petition at Change.org entitled THE LIFE OF BLACK, MENTALLY DISABLED MUSLIM PRISONER DARREN RAINEY DOES MATTER."

Harold Hempstead, a.k.a. Caged Crusader, a.k.a. Miami Harold - Tennessee D.C., April 2017

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A few thoughts on the above, by Jeremy Schanche.  I strongly believe that those convicted of crimes should be treated in accordance with the law.  I don't approve of every law, or every sentence handed down, but the principal of the rule of law is vital, and is central to democracy and free society.  Convicts should be protected from arbitrary, cruel and unusual punishment, which obviously would include starvation and torture, by any means.  This is in accordance with the law. 

Those who feel that the law is either too lenient or too oppressive in any instance can seek redress through various channels including courts of law, lobbying political leaders, engaging in activism and outreach, protesting, exercising your free speech, attempting to influence people through media, writing, publications, etc.. if you're lucky enough to live in a so-called democracy, that is. 

The reality does not live up to the ideal, or the legal entity and is failing countless inmates, who suffer extremely cruel but all-too-usual punishments that constitute torture.  Again and again I ask myself when someone is going to call in the UN - I know they've already been involved at Pelican Bay prison in California where sleep-deprivation was policy.

Daniel Geiger was deeply disturbed and not only was he not getting the medical help that might have led towards his eventual rehabilitation, he was being tortured, and starved, systematically along with others, in a Florida prison of the twenty-first century. 

The notorious 'Shower-Treatment' that has cast such an oppressive shadow over Dade Correctional Institution sine 2012, was actually devised for and tested on Daniel Geiger.  He was tortured in the super-heated steam on at least two occasions, if not more.  He was also known to be starved and lost a dramatic and dangerous amount of his body-weight in Dade, as did others.  To my knowledge, so far, at least six witnesses to the shower-torture at Dade C.I. have already died, through various causes.  How many are still left alive, I wonder?

Daniel Geiger was extremely noisy and shouted continuously, day and night.  Rather than get him appropriate medical treatment, he was cynically used by guards as a weapon.  They would place him in cells next to inmates they wished to sign out of the TCU.  This was essentially using a deranged and tormented soul as a pawn, a mere tool to apply leverage to other inmate-patients who were seeking medical help in the Transitional Care Unit.

To me this represents an incredible degree of callousness, using an acutely suffering man to influence the behaviour of other intensely suffering inmate-patients.

Geiger was so deranged that he was known to eat his own shit and he would not accept the fact that he was even in Dade prison, yet, Katherine Fernandez Rundle and the MDPD got him to say he was not aware of any torture at Dade TCU - even though he himself was starved and tortured there. 

So a deranged man who was starved and tortured was interviewed by police, presumably without a lawyer present, and supposedly gave reliable testimony that he knew of no torture being practiced.  This was in an environment that the guards referred to as 'Auschwitz' as they greeted new arrivals and told them, "we kill guys here and get away with it..."  and yet Geiger's 'statement' to the MDPD detectives who got him in that room, is considered reliable evidence by the police and the Miami-Dade State Attorney, Katherine Fernandez Rundle.  Reliable enough to disprove any ridiculous stories of torture and abuse, that is. 

And as Harold Hempstead points out, she was also using the words of a dead man to her own advantage, without bothering to inform people following the case that he even was dead. 

An increasing number of witnesses to the torture at Dade C.I. have been dropping dead in dubious circumstances, inmate-witnesses to the torture and killing that she's gone on a long, circuitous and futile journey to try to deny, Katherine Fernandez Rundle would prefer to try and bury this fact along with so many others, after all, it's what she does best.