Attica Prison riot
The Attica Prison Riot, also known as the Attica Prison Rebellion, the Attica Uprising, or the Attica Prison Massacre, took place at the state prison in Attica, New York; it started on September 9, 1971, and ended on September 13 with the highest number of fatalities in the history of United States prison uprisings. Of the 43 men who died (33 inmates and 10 correctional officers and employees), all but one guard and three inmates were killed by law enforcement gunfire when the state retook control of the prison on the final day of the uprising.[1][2][3] The Attica Uprising has been described as a historic event in the prisoners' rights movement.[4][5]
Prisoners revolted to seek better living conditions and political rights, claiming that they were treated as beasts.[6] On September 9, 1971, 1,281 of the approximately 2,200 men incarcerated in the Attica Correctional Facility rioted and took control of the prison, taking 42 staff hostage. During the following four days of negotiations, authorities agreed to 28 of the prisoners' demands[7] but would not agree to demands for the removal of Attica's superintendent nor to complete amnesty from criminal prosecution for inmates for the prison takeover.[8] By order of Governor Nelson Rockefeller (after consultation with President Richard M. Nixon),[3] armed corrections officers and state and local police were sent in to regain control of the prison. By the time they stopped firing, at least 39 people were dead: 10 correctional officers and civilian employees and 29 inmates, with nearly all killed by law enforcement gunfire.[3] Law enforcement subjected many of the survivors to various forms of torture, including sexual violence.[9]
Rockefeller had refused to go to the prison or meet with prisoners. After the uprising was suppressed, he said that the prisoners "carried out the cold-blood killings they had threatened from the outset".[10] Medical examiners confirmed that all but the deaths of one officer and three inmates were caused by law enforcement gunfire.[1][11] The New York Times writer Fred Ferretti said the rebellion concluded in "mass deaths that four days of taut negotiations had sought to avert."[12]
As a result of the rebellion, the New York Corrections Department made changes in prisons to satisfy some of the prisoners' demands, reduce tension in the system, and prevent such incidents in the future. While there were improvements to prison conditions in the years immediately following the uprising, many of these improvements were reversed in the 1980s and 1990s. Attica remains one of the most infamous prison riots to have occurred in the United States.[2][4]
The initial uprising[edit]
On Wednesday, September 8, 1971, two inmates fought during their recreation break, and a correctional officer came up to intervene.[26] One inmate had already left the area, but the officer demanded the remaining inmate return to his cell, and in the ensuing argument the inmate hit the officer.[26] Other inmates and guards joined the commotion, and another inmate also hit the officer, but before the violence could intensify, Lieutenant Robert Curtiss moved to deescalate the situation.[26] Later that evening, warden Vincent Mancusi ordered the two inmates involved in the altercation to be taken to solitary confinement, but when the officers arrived at 5 Company to take the inmates away, other prisoners resisted.[26] The other inmates in 5 Company shouted and threw things at the guards and one inmate, William Ortiz, hit an officer with a can of soup, resulting in him being assigned to "keep lock", or confinement to his cell.[26][27]
The morning of Thursday, September 9, 1971, prisoners of 5 Company were still upset and demanded that officers tell them what would become of Ortiz. Officer Gordon Kelsey told them he did not know and tried to continue the routine.[28] As inmates headed to breakfast, some managed to open Ortiz's cell door and he left with them to the mess hall.[27][28] When the command staff found out what had occurred, they decided to return all of the men of 5 Company to their cells after breakfast. But they did not inform all the correctional officers, and when officers led inmates out toward the recreation area after breakfast, both officers and inmates were surprised to find the doors locked.[27][28] The inmates believed they were about to be punished and a melee broke out, which resulted in chaos as some inmates attacked the guards and others tried to flee.[28] The chaos spread to other nearby companies of inmates, and the uprising began.[22][27] During this stage, several guards and inmates were injured. Officer William Quinn would die in the hospital two days later of injuries sustained during the initial riot.[7][22]
By noon on September 9, correctional officers and police controlled about half the prison and its inmates, while 1,281 of Attica's approximately 2,200 inmates controlled the other half, including D-yard, two tunnels, and the central control room, referred to as "Times Square".[28] Inmates held 42 officers and civilian employees as hostages.[29]
Retaking of the prison and retaliation[edit]
On the night of Sunday, September 12, 1971, plans were drawn up to retake the prison by force. Members of the team of observers argued for Oswald to deliver to inmates one final appeal for a settlement before the forcible retaking.[38] Oswald agreed, but was instructed not to phrase the demand as an ultimatum, as Rockefeller did not want to let inmates know that the assault was beginning.[38] At 8:25 a.m. on Monday, September 13, 1971, Oswald gave the inmates a statement directing them to release the hostages and accept the offered settlement within the hour.[7][38] However, he did not tell them that negotiations had ended and he would take the prison back by force if they refused, even stating, "I want to continue negotiations with you."[39] The inmates rejected his offer, and as it appeared to them as though Rockefeller remained opposed to their demands the mood among the inmates deteriorated.[40]
In preparation for prison authorities potentially taking the prison back by force, inmates had dug defensive trenches, electrified metal gates, fashioned crude battlements out of metal tables and dirt, and fortified the "Times Square" prison command center.[41] After Oswald left following the inmates' rejection of his latest offer, the inmates decided to try to impress upon prison officials that they were serious about their demands, and to remind them that inmates had power over the hostages if the state was to come in by force.[42] The inmates brought eight corrections officers to the catwalk on top of the command center and surrounded them with inmates armed with homemade weapons. According to surviving inmates, they did not intend to kill the hostages, but rather to use them as insurance.[42] Shortly after inmates and hostages were positioned on the catwalk, Oswald gave the order to begin the retaking. Of the decision, he later said, "On a much smaller scale, I think I have some feeling now of how Truman must have felt when he decided to drop the A-bomb."[8]
At 9:46 a.m. on Monday, September 13, 1971, tear gas was dropped into the yard and hundreds of New York State Police troopers, Bureau of Criminal Investigation personnel, deputy sheriffs, park police, and correctional officers opened fire into the smoke. Among the weapons used by the troopers were shotguns loaded with buckshot pellets, which led to the wounding and killing of hostages and inmates who were not resisting.[43] Additionally, some of the guns utilized by law enforcement used unjacketed bullets, "a kind of ammunition that causes such enormous damage to human flesh that it was banned by the Geneva Conventions."[44][i] Correctional officers from Attica were allowed to participate, a decision later called "inexcusable" by the commission established by Rockefeller to study the riot and the aftermath.[37] By the time the facility was reported as fully secured at 10:05 a.m., law enforcement had shot at least 128 men and killed nine hostages and twenty-nine inmates.[45] A tenth hostage, Correctional Officer Harrison W. Whalen, died on October 9, 1971, of gunshot wounds received during the assault.[46]
Inmate survivors alleged that leaders were singled out and killed by troopers during and after the retaking. According to a doctor who treated survivors, "[m]any of the ringleaders were approached by guards and shot systematically. Some had their hands in the air surrendering. Some were lying on the ground."[8] One of the leaders, Elliott James "L.D." Barkley, who was frequently featured in news coverage, was allegedly alive after the initial retaking. Assemblyman Arthur Eve testified that Barkley was alive after the prisoners had surrendered and the state regained control; another inmate stated that the officers searched Barkley out, yelling his name, and executed him with a shot to the back.[32][47][48] Sam Melville, a member of the committee that helped organize and draft inmates' demands and who was known in the prison as a radical, was allegedly shot while he had his hands in the air trying to surrender.[49][50]
The final death toll from the rebellion also includes the officer fatally injured by inmates during the initial uprising and three inmates who were subjected to vigilante killings by fellow inmates before the retaking of the prison. Ten hostages died from gunfire by state troopers and soldiers.[51][52] The New York State Special Commission on Attica wrote, "With the exception of Indian massacres in the late 19th century, the State Police assault which ended the four-day prison uprising was the bloodiest one-day encounter between Americans since the Civil War."[15][53]
State officials, including Oswald and Rockefeller, initially stated that inmates slit the throats of many of their hostages.[54][11] The false information was widely reported in the media.[1][54] But less than 24 hours later, official medical examiners confirmed that all the hostages had been killed by bullets fired by law enforcement officers.[54][11][55] The Special Commission found that state officials failed to quickly refute the early rumors and false reports.[37]
Troopers and prison officers set about with physically violent and humiliating reprisals. Inmates were made to strip naked and crawl through mud, broken glass, and the prisoners' hand-dug latrines. Directed into the prison, they were forced to run hallways naked between lines of enraged officers, who beat the inmates and yelled insults and racial slurs.[8][16][55][47] Some inmates, including leaders such as Frank Smith,[30] were subject to additional reprisals and punishments, including repeated physical abuse and being locked in solitary confinement.[22][30][49][56] Several days after the uprising's end, doctors treating wounded inmates reported evidence of more beatings.[37][57][58]
Lawsuits and payments[edit]
In October 1971, Robert Fischer was appointed as Special Deputy Attorney General to lead the Attica Task Force and was charged with investigating any criminal acts that may have been committed during the uprising or retaking (Fischer was later succeeded as the Attica Task Force leader by Anthony Simonetti).[7] Within four years of the uprising, 62 inmates had been charged in 42 indictments with 1,289 separate counts. One state trooper was indicted for reckless endangerment.[7] In May 1975, two former inmates were convicted in the death of William Quinn, despite the fact that "[o]nly faltering evidence linked the two inmates to the actual beating that left Quinn dead".[61] Charles Pernasilice, who was Catawba Indian, was sentenced to a term of up to two years for attempted assault, and John Hill, who was Mohawk, was convicted of murder and sentenced to 20 years to life.[62][63] Supporters alleged that the trial was unfairly conducted and that the men's ethnicity contributed to their indictment and conviction, with Hill's lawyer William Kunstler saying at the sentencing, "I'm not going to give the impression to the outside world that there is justice here."[63][61][62]
In 1975, Malcolm Bell, a prosecutor in the Attica Task Force, sent a report to Governor Hugh Carey alleging that his superiors were covering up evidence of criminal actions by law enforcement officers in the retaking of Attica and preventing him from fully investigating and prosecuting law enforcement.[64] After Bell's report was leaked to the public, Carey appointed Judge Bernard S. Meyer of the Supreme Court for Nassau County, New York to the post of Special Deputy Attorney General to investigate.[64] The Meyer Report, released in December 1975, found "[t]here was no intentional cover-up", but "there were, however, serious errors of judgment" including "important omissions on the part of the State Police in the gathering of evidence."[64][65]
Initially, only the first of the three-volume Meyer report was released to the public; in 1981 the State Supreme Court ordered that the other two be sealed permanently.[66] The Forgotten Victims of Attica, a group made up of officers injured in the riot and families of killed officers, pushed for the State of New York to release state records of the uprising to the public. In 2013, Attorney General Eric Schneiderman said he would seek release of the entirety of volumes 2 and 3, totaling 350 pages.[66] After redactions, 46 pages of the report were released in May 2015.[56] The released pages contain accounts from witnesses and inmates describing torture, burning, and sexual abuse of inmates by prison authorities.[56][67] In 2021, the 50th anniversary of the uprising, the Forgotten Victims of Attica, surviving inmates, families of killed inmates, historians, and lawyers continued to push for the release of all records related to Attica.[68]
In December 1976, Governor Carey announced he was "closing the book on Attica". He pardoned all inmates who had previously pleaded guilty to obtain reduced sentences, commuted the sentences of the two inmates convicted in court, and dismissed pending disciplinary actions against 20 law enforcement officers relating to the uprising.[7]
Though the possibility of criminal suits was closed with Carey's decision, civil suits were allowed to proceed. Surviving inmates and families of inmates killed in the prison retaking sued the State of New York for civil rights violations by law enforcement officers and prison officials during and after the retaking of Attica. After decades in the courts, the state agreed in 2000 to pay $8 million ($12 million minus legal fees) to settle the case.[49][69]
In 2005, the state separately settled with surviving prison employees and families of the slain prison employees for $12 million.[70] Frank "Big Black" Smith advocated both for compensation for inmate survivors and the families of the deceased, and for their correctional officer counterparts who had been killed or injured and their bereaved as well.[30]