Attica Prison riots
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The 'Attica Prison riots' were general prison uprisings that began at the Attica Correctional Facility in Attica, New York, United States, on September 9, 1971.
The prisoners had demanded better living conditions, showers, education, and vocational training, as well as less censorship of their mail and visitors. At the time, inmates were given one bucket of water a week as a "shower" and one roll of toilet paper a month. One of their most humble requests was for unrationed toilet paper.
The original request was sent in a letter before any physical action. Then, responding to rumors of torture of two prisoners, the prisoners revolted, taking prison guards as hostages.
The prisoners negotiated with a team of observers that they had requested, including Tom Wicker, an editor of the New York Times, James Ingram of the Michigan Chronicle, state representive Arthur Eve and other elected officials.
On Saturday, September 11, a guard injured in the revolt died in hospital. The prisoners' request for amnesty regarding the prison takeover would not be granted and everyone involved in the death would be eligible for the electric chair.
Negotiators on both sides requested the presence of governor Nelson Rockefeller but he refused to come, believing that his presence would not help the situation in any way.
The four-day revolt ended when 211 New York state police and correction officers stormed the facility. In the aftermath of the assault, 10 of the 39 hostages were dead, as well as 29 inmates. Additionally, four hostages and 85 inmates suffered gunshot wounds. None of the prisoners had guns; all the deaths had been caused by the authorities retaking the prison.
Media reports claimed that inmate hostage-takers slit the throats of many of their hostages, reports that contradicted official medical evidence. Newspaper headlines made statements such as "I Saw Slit Throats," implying that prisoners had cut the hostages' throats when the armed raid occurred. These "reports" were later found to be fictitious.
The Attica riots were notable in that they directed national media attention to the condition of prisons in the United States during the 1960s and early 1970s. The riots also revealed for the first time how American prison systems operated in regard to race issues, as many of the prison guards were seen as bigots.
The State of New York settled a wrongful death lawsuit with the families of the slain inmates 27 years after the riot. The State of New York finally recognized the families of the slain prison employees in the Fall of 2004 with a 12 million dollar financial settlement.
Racial Issues
Many people attribute the cause of the riot to the racial issues inside of the prison at the time. Of the approximately 2,300 inmates (in a facility built for 1600), 54% of the inmates were African American and 9% Puerto Rican, however all of the 383 correctional officers were white. From reports on the prison conditions, the guards were openly racist assaulting the prisoners with their Batons which they dubbed as "Nigger Sticks." During this time period Black Militancy was at its peak and several prisons had their Black Militants transferred to Attica. At the same time, Black Panther George Jackson died at the hands of white prison guards only a few days before the riot in the San Quentin State Prison in California adding to the racial tension. Overall, this riot was shocking in how it exposed the racism of the prison system as Attica was a northern prison which many felt would be free of racism. The aftermath of the riot called for prison reform especially in the treatment of minority inmates who were becoming a majority in several state correctional facilities across America.
Cultural references
The incident is directly referenced in at least two songs: John Lennon's Attica State on his Some Time In New York City album, and Tom Paxton's "The Hostage", which was told from the perspective of one of the prison guards. The Paxton song was made famous by Judy Collins, who included it on her 1973 album True Stories and Other Dreams. The Attica riots were also said to have inspired both the 10cc song Rubber Bullets and the Charles Mingus composition Remember Rockefeller at Attica.
The 1972 album Attica Blues by jazz saxophonist Archie Shepp and its title track are a direct reference to the incident.
Composer Frederic Rzewski wrote two pieces, Coming Together/Attica (1972), that set excerpts from a letter by Sam Melville, one of the prisoners killed in the riots.
In the 1975 film Dog Day Afternoon, Al Pacino's character, Sonny, who is holding eight bank employees hostage, starts a chant of "ATTICA! ATTICA!" at the massed police outside. The crowd gathered begins to cheer.
Two TV movies of the riot have been produced: 1980's Attica (w/ George Grizzard and 1994's Against the Wall, w/ Samuel L. Jackson.
The Riots are mentioned Allen Ginsbergs poem "Hadda been playing on the jukebox," which was performed live by Rage Against The Machine[link].
Often, on the television show Mystery Science Theatre 3000 Joel and the bots shouted "Attica! Attica! Attica!" whenever a character was shown on the screen held behind bars, a reference to Attica prison and the riots therein.
In the show King of Queens the character Arthur Spooner shouts Attica! Attica! when he makes a cop back into a trash can.
External links
- [Yahoo! Directory: Attica Riot links]
- [Democrat and Chronicle: Attica – A History In Photographs]
- [Talking History: Attica Revisited]
- ["I Would Do It Any Day, Again" an Interview with Akil Al-Jundi]
- [1971 Attica Prison Uprising] - on libcom.org history with links to related articles on the prisoners' movement, Black Panthers, Vietnam, etc.
- [video interviews with Frank Smith]
- [Short history on American Experience @PBS.org]
Bibliography
Voices of Freedom: An Oral History of the Civil Rights Movement from the 1950s through the 1980s, eds. Henry Hampton and Steve Fayer
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