On September 9, 1971, prisoners riot and seize control of
the maximum-security Attica Correctional Facility near Buffalo, New York. Later
that day, state police retook most of the prison, but 1,281 convicts occupied
an exercise field called D Yard, where they held 39 prison guards and employees
hostage for four days. After negotiations stalled, state police and prison
officers launched a disastrous raid on September 13th, in which 10 hostages and
29 inmates were killed in an indiscriminate hail of gunfire. Eighty-nine others
were seriously injured.
By the summer of 1971, the state prison in Attica, New York,
was ready to explode. Inmates were frustrated with chronic overcrowding,
censorship of letters, and living conditions that limited them to one shower
per week and one roll of toilet paper each month. Some Attica prisoners,
adopting the radical spirit of the times, began to perceive themselves as
political prisoners rather than convicted criminals. On the morning of
September 9,1971 the eruption came when inmates on the way to breakfast
overpowered their guards and stormed down a prison gallery in a spontaneous
riot. They broke through a faulty gate and into a central area known as Times
Square, which gave them access to all the cellblocks. Many of the prison's
2,200 inmates then joined in the rioting, and prisoners rampaged through the
facility beating guards, acquiring makeshift weapons, and burning down the
prison chapel. One guard, William Quinn, was severely beaten and thrown out a
second-story window. Two days later, he died in a hospital from his injuries.
Using tear gas and submachine guns, state police regained
control of three of the four cellblocks held by the rioters without loss of
life. By 10:30 a.m., the inmates were only in control of D Yard, a large, open
exercise field surrounded by 35-foot walls and overlooked by gun towers.
Thirty-nine hostages, mostly guards and a few other prison employees were
blindfolded and held in a tight circle. Inmates armed with clubs and knives
guarded the hostages closely. Riot leaders put together a list of demands,
including improved living conditions, more religious freedom, an end to mail
censorship, and expanded phone privileges. They also called for specific
individuals, such as U.S. Representative Herman Badillo and New York Times
columnist Tom Wicker, to serve as negotiators and civilian observers.
Meanwhile, hundreds of state troopers arrived at Attica, and New York Governor
Nelson A. Rockefeller called in the National Guard.
In tense negotiations, New York Correction Commissioner
Russell Oswald agreed to honor the inmates' demands for improved living
conditions. However, talks bogged down when the prisoners called for amnesty
for everyone in D Yard, along with safe passage to a "non-imperialist
country" for anyone who desired it. Observers pleaded with Governor
Rockefeller to come to Attica as a show of good faith, but he refused and
instead ordered the prison to be retaken by force.
On the rainy Monday morning of September 13th, an ultimatum
was read to the inmates, calling on them to surrender. They responded by
putting knives against the hostages' throats. At 9:46 a.m., helicopters flew
over the yard, dropping tear gas as state police and correction officers
stormed in with guns blazing. The police fired 3,000 rounds into the tear gas
haze, killing 29 inmates and 10 of the hostages and wounding 89. Most were shot
in the initial indiscriminate barrage of gunfire, but other prisoners were shot
or killed after they surrendered. An emergency medical technician recalled
seeing a wounded prisoner, lying on the ground, shot several times in the head
by a state trooper. Another prisoner was shot seven times and then ordered to
crawl along the ground. When he didn't move fast enough, an officer kicked him.
Many others were savagely beaten.
In the aftermath of the bloody raid, authorities said the
inmates had killed the slain hostages by slitting their throats. One hostage
was said to have been castrated. However, autopsies showed that these charges
were false and that all 10 hostages had been shot to death by police. The
attempted cover-up increased public condemnation of the raid and prompted a
Congressional investigation. The Attica riot was the worst prison riot in U.S.
history. A total of 43 people were killed, including the 39 killed in the raid,
guard William Quinn, and three inmates killed by other prisoners early in the
riot. In the week after its conclusion, police engaged in brutal reprisals
against the prisoners, forcing them to run a gauntlet of nightsticks and crawl
naked across broken glass, among other tortures. The many injured inmates
received substandard medical treatment, if any.
In 1974, lawyers representing the 1,281 inmates filed a $2.8
billion class-action lawsuit against prison and state officials. It took 18
years before the suit came to trial, and five more years to reach the damages
phase, delays that were the fault of a lower-court judge opposed to the case.
In January 2000, New York State and the former and current inmates settled for
$8 million, which was divided unevenly among about 500 inmates, depending on
the severity of their suffering during the raid and the weeks following. Families
of the slain correction officers lost their right to sue by accepting the
modest death-benefit checks sent to them by the state. The hostages who survived
likewise lost their right to sue by cashing their paychecks. Both groups attest
that no state officials apprised them of their legal rights, and they were
denied compensation that New York should have paid to them.
Michael Thomas Barry is the
author of Murder &
Mayhem 52 Crimes that Shocked Early California 1849-1949. The book
can be purchased from Amazon through the following link:
