Attica Uprising

Perhaps no other prison riot has received as much notoriety as the uprising at Attica (New York). The penitentiary became a metaphor for numerous social problems, including racism, oppression, and injustice. As a result of the riot, between September 9 and 13, 1971, a total of 43 persons died; most significantly, 39 were killed, and more than 80 others were wounded [Page 201]by gunfire during the 15 minutes it took the state police to retake the institution.

Attica was not unlike most maximum-security prisons in the nation in the early 1970s. At the time of the uprising, the prison was vastly overcrowded with more than 2,200 inmates. Compounding overcrowding, the prisoners were simply “warehoused” since few meaningful programs of education and rehabilitation were offered. Like many large prisons in the nation, the inmate population was becoming increasingly urban and minority (54% black, 37% white, and 8.7% Spanish-speaking, almost 80% from downstate urban ghettos). By contrast, prison officials and staff members were predominately white and from rural communities. Racism between the officers and the inmates was mutual. Rural white officers were suspicious of prisoners from the ghettos, and minority inmates did not trust the staff, who were viewed as “hicks,” “cowboys,” or “Good ol'boys.”

The chronology of events began the day before the riot when a misunderstanding between guards and prisoners led to an officer being assaulted by an inmate. That night, two prisoners were removed from their cells and placed in administrative detention. Other inmates vowed revenge, and the next morning the officer, who was at the center of the controversy, was attacked. Violence spread as prisoners attacked officers, took hostages, and destroyed property. Following a few days of negotiations, prisoners rejected Commissioner Oswald's revised set of demands; as a result, state police were ordered to storm the prison.

Regaining control of the prison, however, did not end the violence. Hundreds of prisoners were subsequently stripped naked and beaten by correction officers, troopers, and sheriffs' deputies. The ordeal was prolonged further because prison officials withheld immediate medical care for those suffering from gunshot wounds and injuries stemming from the widespread reprisals. When the shooting stopped, there were only 10 medical personnel available to treat more than 120 seriously wounded prisoners and hostages, and only 2 of them were physicians. Doctors at local hospitals who could have attended to the wounded were not dispatched by prison officials until 4 hours later.

After years of legal wrangling, a class action suit moved forward in the courts. Eventually, a jury found Deputy Warden Pfeil liable for violent reprisals following the riot for permitting police and guards to beat and torture inmates. But in 1999, a federal appeals court overturned that ruling saying that the 1992 liability finding against Pfeil was invalid. Then in 2000, a federal judge announced that the inmates who were beaten and tortured during the riot would receive an $8 million settlement from New York State.