Al Mascitti
Doesn't look likely
By AL MASCITTI
09/05/2004
Examples of why the Delaware prison system needs an independent investigation keep piling up.
On July 10, two days before a counselor at Delaware Correctional Center near Smyrna was taken hostage and raped, inmate Tim Ward was savagely beaten unconscious by another convict in the prison yard. His family and their lawyers say the unprovoked attack occurred because two officers who were supposed to be guarding the yard were away from their posts, a charge the Department of Correction is investigating.
Ward, 42, was injured so severely that the first corrections officers to reach him thought he was dead, according to his mother, Louise Ward, of Bowie, Md., who pieced together the details from the accounts of inmates and corrections officers.
She learned of the attack the next day, when she showed up for a scheduled visit and was taken to the infirmary. "They opened the door and said, 'Is this your son?' It was grotesque. His face was three times its normal size," she said.
Louise Ward can only guess at the severity of his injuries. Though Tim Ward signed a confidentiality waiver July 15, his family still has not received his medical records.
Tim Ward, a mason who has served a year of his three-year sentence for armed burglary, had two teeth knocked out and broken bones from his eye socket to his jaw. But his ordeal was just beginning.
From visiting him nearly every day, his family knows his vision is deteriorating, his jaw may be misaligned and he has constant headaches that get worse in bright light.
Attorney Jeff Martin, who also represents the raped counselor, said the attack further demonstrates the unsafe conditions in Delaware prisons.
Only after Martin got involved were Louise Ward's complaints addressed. In a Thursday letter, Gov. Ruth Ann Minner's legal counsel, Joseph Schoell, wrote that Tim Ward had been seen by medical professionals nine times since leaving the prison infirmary a few days after the attack and has been prescribed medication.
Louise Ward said that's true, as far as it goes. The day of the attack he was X-rayed and stitched up at Kent General Hospital. On July 19 he saw an oral surgeon, who pulled two more teeth. His continued vision problems prompted a visit by an optometrist - not an ophthalmologist - who prescribed sunglasses. The only pain medications he has received since the week of the attack have been Tylenol and Aleve.
Prison spokeswoman Beth Welch said medical care at the prison is provided by an accredited outside provider, whose medical director decides on a case-by-case basis whether outside physicians are needed. On Friday, the department offered to allow Tim Ward to see an outside doctor if his family pays the transportation costs.
"What happens to someone when he's beaten through no fault of his own?" said Herbert Feuerhake, another attorney on the case. "He was sentenced to three years in prison, not a brutal beating."
"This is a matter of civil rights and fundamental fairness," Martin said, adding something you'll rarely hear from a litigator: "We're not talking about a lawsuit right now.
"Our only concern is with Tim Ward's health."
Contact Al Mascitti at 324-2866 or amascitti@delawareonline.com.
