Prison board declines to meet with suicide victim’s family
A family who was supposed to meet with the prison board following the death of their daughter at the George W. Hill Correctional Facility was turned away in March because of their attorney.
As part of a settlement stemming from a lawsuit filed after the 2015 suicide of 35-year-old Janene Wallace, the family and the prison board were supposed to meet. The family appeared at a March meeting to do so.
“First, it was clearly a demand as part of the settlement that was negotiated by Mr. DiOrio’s firm that the family meet with the prison board,” David Inscho, lead counsel for the Wallace family in their suit against GEO Group, said. “We had been scheduled to speak with them at the March 2018 meeting.”
Prior to that, in February, Nickaleen Bishop Williams, 30, commit suicide at the prison.
“This family came to our firm to try and find out what happened,” Inscho said. “After we informed the private contractor … that we were retained by this new family (Delaware County Prison Board Solicitor Robert) DiOrio disinvited the Wallace family and myself from the March meeting.”
DiOrio said the prison board wanted to meet with the Wallace family.
“The board was under the impression that they were going to meet with the family,” he said.
However, DiOrio said when Inscho informed the board that he was going to be representing the Williams family in a similar manner, DiOrio instructed the board to not meet with them at that time.
“It was my call,” DiOrio said. “I thought it might be a conflict.”
He said Inscho was supposed to get back to the board to reschedule.