By Tom Eldred,
Delaware State News
SMYRNA - A seven-member task force created by Gov. Ruth Ann Minner to examine the July 12 abduction and rape of a prison counselor at the Delaware Correctional Center near Smyrna has received an early message, five days before the panel meets for the first time.
The message, a two-page letter, was faxed or e-mailed to each member Wednesday.
It is from Cassandra Arnold, the 27-year-old counselor who was taken hostage at knifepoint by inmate Scott A. Miller.
In the letter, Ms. Arnold thanks the panel members for their willingness to investigate what she calls the state's "troubled prison system.''
She urges the task force to conduct a broad investigation, not only of DCC, but of Delaware's "whole broken-down'' correctional process.
"For myself, I wish that this investigation had occurred before the events of my last day on the job,'' the letter says.
"If you are able, through your efforts, to achieve improvement through the system, it will make me feel that something good has come from this - that my efforts to achieve a better workplace while employed at the Delaware Correctional Center (and my hope that what happened to me might lead to change) will not have been in vain.''
Miller, 45, was serving 699 years for multiple rapes and other crimes. He abducted Ms. Arnold at knifepoint shortly after she completed a stress management counseling session for about a dozen inmates, including Miller, in a secure area of DCC.
According to a review released Oct. 6 by the Department of Correction, the 260-pound Miller somehow walked unattended past a manned security control booth and through two security doors to a non-secure office corridor, where he hid in a bathroom.
When Ms. Arnold noticed him in the bathroom, he grabbed her, put a knife to her throat, and barricaded an office, where he kept her hostage for nearly seven hours before he was shot and killed by a correctional officer.
Miller sexually assaulted and raped Ms. Arnold shortly before he was killed.
Ms. Arnold filed a lawsuit against the state in federal court Tuesday, claiming ongoing security lapses, inadequate staffing and ineffective supervision by top prison officials directly contributed to her July 12 ordeal.
Attorney Jeffrey K. Martin, a lawyer for Ms Arnold, said his client worked on the letter during the weekend and then went over it with her legal counsel.
"She drafted the letter,'' he said. "We primarily edited what she already had written. We sent a copy to each member of the task force, either by fax or e-mail.''
In the letter, Ms. Arnold tells the panel of her interest in working with criminal offenders, dating back to 1990 when she saw the movie "The Silence of the Lambs'' as a freshman in high school.
"I wanted to understand why certain inmates keep coming back to prison, and to help these inmates, so that perhaps even one might be saved,'' she writes.
"In 2002 I was promoted to senior counselor. I developed and implemented a stress reduction program for inmates. I did my best to provide adequate treatment and fulfill all of my duties, despite the difficult working conditions and high caseload.''
Ms. Arnold said she served on the Positive Prison Culture Committee at DCC.
"This committee was very important for a simple reason,'' the letter says. "(That is) because the culture at DCC was so very negative.
"While the committee had some genuine achievements, it was held back by insufficient resources, and at times a lack of commitment on the part of the Department of Correction to follow through on our recommendations.''
Gov. Minner declined comment on the letter, spokeswoman Kate Bailey said.
DOC spokeswoman Elizabeth Welch said DOC administrators would not comment.
Ms. Arnold urged the task force to interview front-line DOC staff to get the real story, rather than those who "spin the truth.''
"Please remember that those (DOC) employees that come forward and speak the truth to you are risking their own jobs,'' she said.
"When I used the word, 'snitch,' in an e-mail that I sent complaining about unlocked security doors, it was because, unfortunately, in the Delaware correctional system any person who tries to tell the truth about unsafe practices is immediately labeled a snitch.
"It has also been my experience that efforts to change things are not looked upon kindly by management personnel.''
Retired Superior Court Judge Vincent A. Bifferato Sr., one of the seven panel members appointed by the governor, declined direct response to Ms. Arnold's letter.
"As a task force member, we have an investigation to do,'' he said. "I don't want to suggest a particular view at this time.''
Mr. Bifferato said he assumes the panel will name a chairman when it convenes for the first time at 10 a.m. Monday in the Carvel State Office Building in Wilmington.
He said he was unsure before the first meeting of whether the scope of the inquiry would be to focus primarily on DCC and the July 12 incident, or a wider review of DOC in general.
"I think we'll be deciding that when we meet,'' he said. "We really haven't discussed the magnitude of it yet. Personally, I think they go hand in hand.''
Although Gov. Minner's executive order creating the task force does not reference funding for the investigation, Mr. Bifferato said he's sure money would be available for whatever the panel's needs are. He said financing would probably come from the governor's discretionary budget or the state legislature.
Ms. Arnold said a full investigation is extremely important.
"On July 12, 2004, I was given a life sentence,'' she said in her letter.
"I want some good to come from that day. I need to know that my experience, and the problems in Delaware's prisons, are not brushed aside and forgotten as time progresses.''
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Senior writer Tom Eldred can be reached at 741-8212 or teldred@newszap.com.
