Declaring himself “outraged,” Florida Department of Corrections Secretary Mike Crews will travel to Miami to accelerate the investigation into the death of inmate Darren Rainey, who was locked in a scalding-hot shower by guards at the Dade Correctional Institution, reports the Miami Herald. Crews, ending two months of silence amid a string of news reports in the Herald, said firings are to be expected. The previously unreported death of Rainey, who was serving two years for a drug conviction, was detailed in a series of articles about Rainey and other inmates whose lives were lost in suspicious incidents.
Crews said he would travel to prisons across the state to “assess operations, meet with leaders and officers and take action on activities that run counter to the Department's mission of maintaining a secure environment for officers and the inmates the Department houses.” Crews, the third corrections secretary under Gov. Rick Scott, said he will do what he can to assist Miami-Dade homicide detectives, who are investigating the death of Rainey, a 50-year-old mentally ill inmate found dead June 23, 2012. Crews' comments came a day after the Herald reported that a predecessor, former secretary James McDonough, said the Herald’s reports “smack of torture, sadism, murder, cover-up and ignoring of the facts.”