An Arizona prison chaplain, injured in an on-the-job inmate attack, filed a lawsuit this week saying the attack could have been prevented.
Chaplain James Allen Miser was knocked down and stabbed by an inmate seven months ago in a Florence prison yard.
The lawsuit claims that some correctional officers and prison healthcare contractors saw warning signs that the inmate had a serious mental illness and could resort to violence. The lawsuit said those workers did not take action to get the inmate the help he needed, leading to the attack on Allen.
“I'm recovering,” Allen said. “I still have pain in the hip. I still have concussion symptoms.”
Allen is also asking for state government leaders to change employee workplace injury benefits laws, so all prison employees will continue getting full pay if they are also attacked.
The chaplain said he may never be able to return to prison ministry.
"I enjoyed my job," Allen said, "And it was very fulfilling. It was meaningful to a lot of people — staff and inmates."
For 26 years, he cared for Arizonans in some of their toughest times, but now Allen and his wife, Shirley Miser, feel they're not receiving the same in return. Shirley said she reached out to the Arizona corrections director months ago.
"I called Director [David] Shinn and told him that in the hospital you told me you'd take care of everything and I wouldn't have to worry about anything, and you know, we have extra expenses, just because he can't do the things he used to do," Shirley said.
The Misers learned chaplains and other civilian state prison employees receive lesser benefits than corrections officers if they are attacked and seriously injured.
State law says corrections officers as public safety employees will receive supplemental benefits paying their "identical base salary" as well as employer health insurance costs and full retirement contributions.
However, benefits for other state employees, who are injured on the job, max out at about 66% of an employee's salary through workers' compensation. Shirley is disappointed at the options.
"Basically, the only thing we could do is burn up his sick leave, burn up his vacation leave, and then apply for other employees to donate their time off to supplement a difference in income," Shirley said.
"They shouldn't be financially penalized and have to worry about paying the mortgage, where food is coming from, on taking care of their family because there's a quirk in the system that differentiates between correction staff and non-correction staff," said the Misers' attorney, Scott Zwillinger. "They're all vital to prison operations, and they all should be treated the same way."
"Sometimes laws are not written all that well," said state Rep. Mitzi Epstein, D-Tempe, and she promises to also review the supplemental benefits law.
"Even if they're not corrections officers, they're in a dangerous place, they deserve appropriate compensation, especially if they've had an injury that was no fault of their own," Epstein said.
Allen hopes speaking out now will ensure better care for future prison employees.
"They need the same help that officers have. I mean, I don't know why that couldn't be put into effect," Allen says.
ABC15 reached out to the Arizona Department of Administration, which handles benefits, and the Department of Corrections, Rehabilitation, and Reentry about the benefits disparity. The departments simply confirmed that public safety employees, including corrections officers, do receive different benefits than other employees in the event they are seriously injured.
