Lawyer for Harold Hempstead

Harold Hempstead, a prisoner serving 165 years for burglary, witnessed the death of Darren Rainey at the Dade Correctional Institute and the pervasive physical, mental, and sexual abuse in Florida Prisons. He told the world.

In 2015 he won the Amercian Civil Liberties Union Maurice Rosen Act of Courage Award for speaking out about the inhumane treatment for prisoners in the Florida prison system.

Yet Hempstead remains behind bars. Harold Hempstead needs a lawyer.

In this funding request we are seeking a total of $13,017. This includes $2327 for expenses to recruit a lawyer and $10,690 for the initial retaner fee.

Hempstead has been incarcerated since March 1999. His family needs him. The nation and the world need a man of his courage and dedication to human rights to be free and working for all of us.

Below is a more detailed description about Harold Hempstead. At the end, are links to articles about Hempstead in the New Yorker and the Miami Herald.

In April 2000, Harold Hempstead was sentenced to serve 165 years in the Florida Department of Corrections (FDC) on 34 counts of burglary and one count of dealing in stolen property. The police reports, depositions, trial transcripts, and the discovery in his case show no one was home during the commission of the burglaries and no one was physically harmed. Harold was convicted on about half of the burglary charges and the dealing in stolen property charge based on the testimony of two individuals who, to avoid prison sentences, alleged that Harold told them to commit the crimes they were arrested for. In addition, no forensic evidence or witnesses introduced into Hempstead’s trial support a conclusion that he committed or asked somebody else to commit these burglaries.

In addition, Harold Hempstead’s sentence is grossly out of line in comparison with other non-violent offenders. The majority of violent crimes in Florida get maximum sentences of 30 years to life. After Hempstead lost his trial and was sentenced, he was transferred, to the custody of the Florida Department of Corrections (FDC) on June 1, 2000.

From the very beginning of his incarceration Hempstead was appalled at the conditions in the FDC and engaged in a great number of attempts to improve conditions in the FDC. As he notes in his book, Department of Corruption to “help others who needed it. I filed thousands of grievances...” (Hempstead, 2019 Research Edition, pg.47). After being born again in 2009, Hempstead became even more convinced that it was his duty as a Christian to try and help those who were being abused in the FDC.

In January 2011, he was placed in the Transitional Care Unit at Dade Correctional Institution (CI) where he began working as an orderly. There he observed egregious behaviors on the part of the guards.

Hempstead was deeply saddened by what he saw in the Dade CI Transitional Care Unit and wished he did not have to actively observe and deal with the abuse. He was deeply drawn to religious studies and wanted to spend his time in Bible study and worship of God. He also knew that God wanted His children to help others. During a hiatus between Hempstead’s first and second incarnation in the Dade CI Transitional Care Unit, he wrestled with these dual positions and decided he had to return to the Dade CI Transitional Care Unit to continue to try and help those in need. Discussing this decision in his book, Hempstead writes:

“I never knew while I was in the jail that within months of talking with the preacher, my Shepherd [Jesus] would lead me back to the Dade CI Transitional Care Unit where I would witness more abuse and non-feeding of inmates than I did during my first stay there. I did not know I would witness mentally disabled inmates tortured in a hot shower, the death of Darren Rainey, and the deaths of two other inmates whom, I believe, died of starvation. I did not know six of my relatives would die in the following two years. Finally, I never had any idea I would become the most disliked inmate by Florida Department of Corrections (FDC) staff for following the Shepherd of my soul.” (Hempstead, 2019 Department of Corruption: Research Edition, pg.46)

In April 2011, Hempstead resumed his work as an orderly the in Dade Correctional Institution, Transitional Care Unit.

The Dade CI Transitional Care Unit provided inpatient mental health care to some of the most severe mentally disabled inmates in the Florida prison system. In 2011 and 2012, Hempstead watched the security staff he worked for as they engaged in systematic abuse including not feeding inmate patients, physically abusing them, and torturing them in different ways. In January 2012, security staff began punishing mentally disabled inmates by placing them in a shower where the water reached temperatures in excess of 160 degrees Fahrenheit. The staff only punished the most severely mentally disabled inmates in the hot-water shower. (That is, they focused on those least able to resist and report the abuse.)

On June 23, 2012, Darren Rainey was placed in the hot-water shower. For a long while, Rainey yelled, screamed, and beat on the shower door trying to get the staff to take him out of the shower. Then Rainey fell to the ground and stopped making any noise. When he collapsed, his body covered the drain in the shower. Water rose over Rainey’s body, cooking him for approximately 18 minutes. When Rainey was removed from the shower, he was dead, and his skin was coming off him.

During his stay, Hempstead witnessed the majority of the abuse and the torture of inmates in the Dade CI Transitional Care Unit. After Darren Rainey’s murder, he took action.

Hempstead started writing and communicating with people and agencies in society trying to get justice for Rainey and help for the mentally disabled inmates in the Dade CI Transitional Care Unit. All of his efforts were to no avail until 2014. In 2014, contact was made with the Miami Herald Newspaper. After he was interviewed about what had happened to Darren Rainey and about the conditions in the Dade CI Transitional Care Unit, the Miami Herald started publishing articles on the Rainy case and Dade CI.

On May 17th 2014, the Miami Herald published their first article on the Darren Rainey case and the Dade CI. That article was entitled “Brutal and Unexplained Death at Dade Correctional Institution.” After the article was published, inmates at institutions throughout the FDC contacted the Miami Herald about incidents that happened at the institutions in which they were incarcerated. This led to the Miami Herald investigating and reporting on dozens of incidents at institutions across the Florida prison system. They reported on many types of matters concerning the unconstitutional conditions in the FDC.

In the years following the Miami Herald publishing their first article on the Darren Rainey case and Dade CI, Florida prison staff subjected Hempstead to all types of retaliation. They wanted to censor him from continuing to expose the culture of cruelty and the unconstitutional conditions in the FDC. Hempstead did not allow the retaliation to stop him, and in October 2015, he was awarded the Maurice Rosen Act of Courage Award by the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida for exposing the Darren Rainey murder and the unconstitutional conditions of the Florida Department of Corrections.

On March 17, 2017, Hempstead was involuntary interstate compacted to the Tennessee Department of Corrections to serve his Florida sentence. This made it impossible for his family and friends to visit him. Since his transfer to the Tennessee Department of Corrections, he has continued to be active in the Florida prison reform.

In December 2018, Hempstead published his book entitled Department of Corruption: Darren Rainey, The Untold Story. This book is on the Darren Rainey case and the unconstitutional conditions and culture of cruelty in the FDC. This book can be found Crusaderbooks.com, Lulu.com, and Amazon.com.

In January 2019, Hempstead published a book entitled quote Used and Abused by the Saint Petersburg Police Department My Life as a Juvenile Confidential Informant. In this book, Hempstead addresses the need to stop law enforcement agencies from using children as confidential informants. He also explains why more regulations are needed to govern how law enforcement agencies use adults as confidential informants.

During the years that Hempstead has been incarcerated, he has obtained a Doctor of Biblical Studies Degree from Calvary Christian College and Seminary. He is also obtained a Paralegal Certification from Blackstone Career Institute.

Harold Hempstead’s contests his conviction for the reasons he explains in his book, Used and Abused by the St. Petersburg Police Department: My Life as a Juvenile Confidential Informant. Additionally, his grossly outrageous for nonviolent crimes. Hempstead’s demonstrated dedication to justice, his rare courage in bringing unlawful acts including murder to light, his commitment to educating himself while in prison, his discipline and dedication demonstrated by writing and publishing books, all testify that justices demands he be granted released back into society.

Hempstead has been incarcerated since March 1999. His family needs him. The nation and the world need a man of his courage and dedication to human rights to be free and working for all of us.

To learn more about what happened to Harold Hempstead please read the following links.

• A Whistleblower Behind Bars, Eyal Press (2016) The New Yorker
• Postcards from Hell: Inmate’s Describes Horrors of the Florida Prison System Sanya Mansoor (2018O Miami Herald
• The inmate who exposed Florida prisons’ culture of cruelty, Julie K. Brown (2015) Miami Herald

References cited are from Department of Corruption: Darren Rainey, The Untold Story, 2019 Research Edition. This is available from Amazon