The Rappahannock Regional Jail, which opened three years ago off U.S. 1 in Stafford County, has been plagued by overcrowding, suicides and inmate deaths this year. rez View More Images from this story Visit the Photo Place

A preventable death?

Inmates say guards mocked Damon Michael Kissam as he pleaded for medical help in the hours before his death at regional jail.

By BRIAN BAER
FREDERICKSBURG.COM

Date published: 10/12/2003

By BRIAN BAER

Delusional from alcohol withdrawal, Damon Michael Kissam begged for medical help in the Rappahannock Regional Jail, but was repeatedly ignored by guards, six men who were in his cellblock say.

Only when Kissam fell silent did he get the medical attention he had asked for, they say.

"I sat next to that kid and listened to him scream his lungs out," former inmate Noey Vineyard said. "And the guards let him die."

Vineyard is among six current and former inmates jailed near Kissam who say officers dismissed, ridiculed and laughed at the 23-year-old inmate as he pleaded for help for at least several hours before his death April 25.

The allegations come after a summer of scrutiny over deaths at the regional jail. Four inmates have died in custody since last fall--three of them in a 44-day period this spring.

Three of the four deaths were ruled suicides. The medical examiner's office in Richmond lists Kissam's official cause of death as "acute seizure episode due to delirium tremens and acute ethanol withdrawal."

An expert on alcoholism says alcohol withdrawal need not be fatal if medical attention is given soon enough. Inmates say that didn't happen in Kissam's case.

Jail Superintendent Larry Hamilton declined to be interviewed for this story, citing the advice of attorneys. He issued a statement that said the jail regretted the deaths and that the inmates who claimed guards neglected Kissam "probably have malicious motives."

Spotsylvania County Commonwealth's Attorney William Neely, a member of the board that oversees the jail, said the allegations need perspective.

"The jail is constantly besieged with intoxicated people being brought in in various states of intoxication," Neely said. "And those inmates constantly cry--most of it falsely--for medical attention, in my experience.

"If a mistake was made--and I'm not conceding one was--you can certainly see how when officers are dealing with that type of crowding and that type of malingering, which is typical, that a jaded perspective may have been in place."

Of the inmates who made allegations, Neely said: "You're dealing with convicted felons, people with axes to grind. So you have to consider it from that perspective and take it with a grain of salt."

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Date published: 10/12/2003