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The 2012 scalding death of a 50 year old mentally ill prisoner is one catalyst of a soon to be filed law suit aimed at changing the way Florida Prison officials treat the mentally ill. You’ll be surprised, as Mike Vasilinda tells us, at the extent of the problem.

Following the scalding death of 50 year old Darren Rainey in a prison mental health unit, lawmakers asked the head of the prison system how many of the states one hundred thousand inmates had a mental illness.

“I’m fairly certain, 30 to 40 percent, would be, would be, conservative” responded Corrections Secretary Julie Jones.

The number should have shocked lawmakers, but there was no sign of it.

“Our prison system is now the largest mentally ill care facility in the state” says Florida Legal Services Executive Director Ken Spuhler.

But the number did get the attention of Florida Legal Services, which is preparing a lawsuit to change how the prison system deals with the mentally ill.

“We just don’t treat them well. Guards aren’t trained to deal with mentally ill prisoners, so they wind up being abused” says Spuhler.

Reggie White is in his 27th year his life sentence. “I saw a guy jump on the fence, knowing they were gonna shoot him off. Hey man, that’s suicide” says White.

Such an incident would likely have brought isolation in solitary confinement, not treatment.

The yet to be filed lawsuit will seek real individual treatment for the mentally ill, better training for officers, and realistic punishment.

“So we are essentially trying to have the courts order them to totally reform” says Spuhler.

One reason for the lack of officers trained to deal with mental health outbursts is high turnover and the inability to fill positions.

At the time of the legislative hearing, the Department of Corrections had 500 vacancies for corrections officers. New data was not available today.