BY ESTEBAN PARRA AND LEE WILLIAMS
The News Journal
09/28/2005
No one at the state Department of Correction called to tell Gary Malone that his brother, Leonard Jenkins, had died.
He learned from a friend who called him on Thanksgiving Day in 2002.
His friend learned from other friends, who were in Delaware's prison system.
When Malone went to collect his brother's belongings at Gander Hill prison in Wilmington, he asked to speak to someone about the circumstances of his brother's death -- but he was turned away.
"They wouldn't let me talk to anyone in authority," Malone said.
On the way to his car, a guard followed him and explained that his brother died of hepatitis C.
"I thought, 'Why is this guy telling me?' " he said.
Family and friends of inmates say Delaware's prison system doesn't make it easy for them to find out what's happened if an inmate gets sick or even dies while serving time. They sometimes learn the news when another inmate tells a friend outside the prison and that friend contacts them.
And even when they're promised information from the state, they say they rarely get it.
David Bender's sister, Cheryl Wheeler, questioned why her brother, who had tried suicide before, was allowed to room with a cellmate who stockpiled heart medication. "They knew he had attempted suicide before," she said.
Bender, convicted on rape charges, died on Halloween in 2002 after complications from a suicide attempt in which he swallowed his cellmate's pills. Wheeler was told she'd get answers after the state conducted an investigation.
She is still waiting.
"He was a ward of the state," she said. "Is there no responsibility?"
Delaware Department of Correction Commissioner Stan Taylor thinks the state does its best to notify friends and family members if something happens to an inmate while he or she is serving time.
He said he doesn't think family is ignored and suggested that critics were lying about the state's efforts to keep them informed. "We try to be as open as we can be," he said.
The process
In Delaware, persons designated by inmates to be next-of-kin contacts are notified by the corrections department when either the medical provider, a doctor or hospital informs them the prisoner is in a life-threatening situation.
The department cannot give out medical details because of confidentiality laws, said Beth Welch, corrections spokeswoman. Because confidentiality laws prohibit them from releasing information, Welch said they refer questions to the medical provider or hospital handling the case.
Taylor said the problem is that sometimes inmates don't provide emergency contacts or their contacts move and the department can't find them, making notification a problem.
Pennsylvania corrections officials have figured out a way around that.
When they arrive, inmates must designate a next of kin to be notified in the event of serious illness, injury or death, said Susan McNaughton, a spokeswoman for Pennsylvania's prisons. This information is reviewed each year and updated as necessary.
In addition, Pennsylvania officials notify next of kin about the circumstances surrounding the illness or injury; the name, location and phone number of the treatment center, if the inmate is no longer in the prison; and the name of the inmate's physician. Families also are provided with visiting information, if it's known.
Several prison employees -- from the inmate's counselor to prison chaplains -- are available to assist families, she said.
"The rationale for involving family in this process is that inmates are individuals with families that care for them," McNaughton said. "The DOC believes that family support and involvement during incarceration is important and critical to all. Ninety percent of our inmates go home one day and they need the support of their family for a successful re-entry."
Even those inmates who may not return to society still have families, McNaughton said.
Legal obligations
Although courts have ruled that inmates deserve adequate health care, there is no legal obligation by Delaware to notify families if something happens to their loved one. Even the American Correctional Association, the world's oldest correctional association, has few notification standards.
"There is nothing in the standards specifically relating to an inmate who is ill having their families notified," said Joe Weedon, the association's director of government affairs. But "in the case where an offender dies, the standards state that the appropriate authorities, as well as next of kin, should be immediately notified."
Delivering this bad news is one of the most important functions a prison can perform, said Jim Mustin, executive director of Family and Corrections Network, an inmates' family rights group in Palmyra, Va. "There's no point in pretending it didn't happen."
When there is a death, Mustin said family members want to know as much as possible: How did the person die? Did the person suffer? Did the person die alone?
"They have the same questions as anyone else," he said.
The process usually involves three steps, said the Rev. Brad Martin, pastor of Trinity Presbyterian Church and chaplain for Wilmington Fire Department. The steps include helping the grieving person know what happened, giving them as much information as possible, and getting the person in touch with their support system, like family, friends or a pastor.
"That's a very important piece so that they are not left alone," said Martin, who in his position as chaplain has had to inform about 15 families of fire-related deaths.
Welch said the department prefers to have a clergyman tell the family of a death. But when a clergyman is not available, the department will have a counselor or the highest ranking corrections officer notify the family. Welch added that this is not a written policy, rather a procedure prison guards are made aware of.
Providing families with information is the right thing to do, Mustin said.
"People don't just stop caring about a family member just because they get locked up," he said.
A new law?
Delaware resident Wallace A. Waite -- the founder of a now-defunct program designed to reduce the number of offenders returning to prison -- has asked legislators to make it mandatory that inmates' families are notified of serious illness.
His son, Ronald W. Trotman, died in March after he was was transferred from the Delaware Correctional Center to Kent General Hospital.
"The family should at least know if they go into the hospital," Waite said.
Waite thought of the law after doctors told him that his son might have lived if he'd gotten care sooner. He contacted state Rep. Wallace Caulk, an independent from Frederica, and state Sen. F. Gary Simpson, R-Milford, about his proposal.
Caulk was surprised to hear that sometimes an inmate's family was not informed of hospitalization. Other agencies, such as police, notify next of kin in emergencies, and he wanted to know why the corrections department didn't.
"I just took for granted that the prison officials would do this," Caulk said.
He said he is trying to verify the prison's notification process and see if legislation is needed to improve it.
Contact Esteban Parra at 324-2299 or eparra@delawareonline.com. Contact investigative reporter Lee Williams at 324-2362 or lwilliams@delawareonline.com.
