Woman blames system for rape

The woman said she was raped after the warden refused to negotiate.
WILMINGTON, Del. (AP) -- A counselor who was taken hostage and raped by an inmate in July harshly criticized Delaware's Department of Correction, saying it is plagued by mismanagement and inadequate, often incompetent, staffing.
In her first public comments since the attack, Cassandra Arnold lashed out at the governor, the prison warden and the guards on duty when she was seized.
"There are a lot of people's lives that are in jeopardy," said Arnold, 27, who met with reporters for almost three hours. "Inmates aren't safe and the staff aren't safe."
Repeated attempts to contact a DOC spokeswoman Saturday were not successful.
Arnold barely survived the harrowing ordeal at the Delaware Correctional Center in Smyrna, which lasted almost seven hours and ended with the shooting death of her attacker, serial rapist Scott Miller, 45.
Guards were there
Arnold said at least three guards were on the scene when Miller grabbed her, but none attempted to overpower him before he barricaded himself in her office.
She also said she was raped after DCC warden Thomas Carroll refused repeated requests to talk to Miller, who wanted to be moved to another prison. Instead, hours into the standoff, Carroll sent a one-sentence note informing Miller that he would have the opportunity to talk only after Arnold was released.
Enraged by Carroll's response, Miller bound and raped Arnold, saying he had "nothing to lose."
"He asked to talk to the warden the whole time, and it never happened, and I was raped," Arnold said as she wept. "I felt abandoned, like no one cared at all."
Governor's comment
The final insult, she said, was Gov. Ruth Ann Minner's comment after the incident that "in prisons, you almost expect this to happen."
"I am truly insulted by that statement," Arnold said through her tears. "If she knows it was going to be like that, then she promoted understaffing and she promoted an unsafe environment. I was embarrassed that she said that."
The Associated Press does not normally report the identities of rape victims, but Arnold said she decided to speak out publicly to draw attention to the problems in the prison system and to protect other DOC employees.
"The way the system works needs to be stopped and changed," Arnold said.
"People need to get rid of inadequate and incompetent staff and put in managers who hold people accountable, who train people properly, who are intelligent and who have respect for each other," she said.
Arnold, a senior counselor who has worked for the DOC for three years, said her prison experience has left her disillusioned.
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