By AL MASCITTI
12/23/2004
When Gov. Ruth Ann Minner reacted to the kidnapping and rape of prison counselor Cassandra Arnold by telling a reporter, "In prison, you almost expect these things to happen," it set off a storm of protest from people who considered the response insensitive.
As it turns out, Minner was giving Delawareans a preview of the state's legal strategy in fending off Arnold's civil rights lawsuit.
Boil down the dozens of pages of legalese in the state's motion to dismiss the suit, and what's left is exactly what Minner contended - in prisons, these things happen. Moreover, it's the state's position that Cassie Arnold acknowledged she might suffer kidnapping or rape when she accepted the Department of Correction's hazardous duty pay - and that she's suing the very people who, by killing her attacker, saved her life.
That position might make perfect legal sense, but it strikes a lot of people as morally bankrupt.
"When I read those things, I was outraged - I was embarrassed as a Delawarean," said Linda Jones, 50, of Newark. "I have several friends who work within the system, and they all say this was an accident waiting to happen. I think that as a state, we owe this person."
Cassie Arnold herself is beyond the point of outrage. "I think it's insulting in many ways," she said. "I felt disappointed, but I also was expecting something like this. A lot went on that day that could have been prevented, but when the state tries to ignore what happened by dismissing the case, they're ignoring the whole problem."
Unfortunately for future victims, that's not how the state sees it. Deputy Attorney General Richard W. Hubbard contended that Scott Miller, the inmate who attacked Arnold, didn't have to take advantage of security lapses to do it. If security doors that were routinely propped open had been closed, he could have attacked Arnold during his counseling session, Hubbard wrote; had metal detectors been operational, Miller could have crafted his homemade weapon out of wood or plastic.
In short, Cassie Arnold wasn't the victim of a state prison system that is chronically short-staffed, forces its correctional officers to work to the point of exhaustion, fails to train them properly and tolerates violations of its security measures. No, all that is just a description of Arnold's dangerous work environment, merely the conditions under which all prison employees can expect to work. What turned Cassie Arnold into a victim was an evil genius in the person of inmate Scott Miller, who would have been able to perpetrate his attack no matter what measures the state had taken to prevent it.
That may well be true, though it seems highly unlikely. But what's most disturbing is that, should this argument prevail, the state will have the perfect excuse to allow these horrible conditions to continue.
The most damning passages in the state's brief come from a judge in a similar case, who wrote back in 1986 that prison guards injured and killed by inmates had no guarantee of a safe working environment. After all, "Governments regularly sacrifice safety for other things."
That's a wonderful legal principle. I hope upholding it makes Gov. Ruth Ann Minner proud.
Contact Al Mascitti at 324-2866 or amascitti@delawareonline.com.
