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| D.C. 4 Months Late Reaching Next of Kin |
| By Washington Post |
| Published: 11/19/2001 |
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James Henderson Sr. says he sent his son $25 late last December, as he often did, so he could buy snacks, toiletries, newspapers or other items from the commissary that might make his life behind bars more bearable at the Lorton Correctional Complex. What the father did not know was that his son, James Jr., had recently died -- and he wouldn't find out for four months. On the day after Christmas, Henderson, who had been serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole for a pair of murder convictions, was found unconscious in his cell at Lorton's maximum-security facility. He was pronounced dead of complications of AIDS. The D.C. Department of Corrections, which operates Lorton, then failed to follow through on its own protocols and notify the family that the 43-year-old man had passed away. Consequently, Henderson's body lay in cold storage at the D.C. morgue for four months. Henderson's father learned the horrific news April 27: not only that was his son gone, but that nobody had bothered to tell him. The word did not come from his jailers. It arrived in a curt, certified form letter from the office of the District's chief medical examiner saying that the inmate's remains would be cremated unless someone responded within 30 days to make other arrangements. The family finally laid the man they called 'Pooch' to rest in a Pentecostal ceremony a month after the medical examiner's letter arrived, five months after Henderson died. Henderson, who once served in the Army, was buried at a veterans cemetery in Prince George's County. Now, working with a lawyer, the Hendersons are demanding answers from the administration of Mayor Anthony A. Williams (D) and exploring whether to file a lawsuit against the city. Darryl J. Madden, a spokesman for the Corrections Department, said Lorton officials should have been more vigilant in trying to contact Henderson's relatives. He said that after receiving complaints from Henderson's family, the agency conducted an inquiry into the matter. He explained that a chaplain assigned to Lorton tried calling two phone numbers on the inmate's contact sheet. One of the numbers was disconnected, and relatives say the other one was a former work number for a sister of Henderson's who died two years ago. But Madden said officials never pursued the next option: sending written notification to a post office box address in Maryland for Henderson's father that was listed on the contact document. |
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