Attica Correctional Facility rises out of rural Wyoming County in Western New York, its stark grey concrete walls cutting through the surrounding acres of farmland, located just a mile from the village of Attica’s historic center. As a maximum-security prison, Attica has housed some of New York State’s most notorious inmates, including the Son of Sam and John Lennon’s assassin Mark David Chapman. It was also the site of one of the deadliest and most notorious prison uprisings in America when, in 1971, 1,281 inmates seized control of the prison for four days.

Attica Prison before the Uprising

Attica Correctional Facility opened in 1931, originally with a capacity for 1,600 inmates. It was designed and built in response to serious disturbances at other New York State prisons, its main gate an imposing concrete turret capped by a red-roofed tower, with 30-foot-high concrete walls 2 feet thick radiating out to surround its domain.

Conditions within Attica had deteriorated significantly by the 1960s and 1970s. The prison now held approximately 2,200 inmates,^[2]American prisons in turmoil. Hearings, Ninety-second Congress, first [and second] session[s]. 1 (1972). This hearing is found in HeinOnline’s U.S. Congressional Documents. far above its capacity, with an inmate to correctional officer ratio of 7 to 1.^[3]American prisons in turmoil. Hearings, Ninety-second Congress, first [and second] session[s]. 1 (1972). This hearing is found in HeinOnline’s U.S. Congressional Documents. Approximately 55%^[4]American prisons in turmoil. Hearings, Ninety-second Congress, first [and second] session[s]. 1 (1972). This hearing is found in HeinOnline’s U.S. Congressional Documents. of Attica’s inmates in 1971 were Black, while the staff was almost entirely white; the prison’s sole Black employee was a teacher.^[5]American prisons in turmoil. Hearings, Ninety-second Congress, first [and second] session[s]. 1 (1972). This hearing is found in HeinOnline’s U.S. Congressional Documents. Inmates were confined to their cells for 14 to 16 hours a day,^[6]Paul D. Meunier & Howard D. Schwartz, Beyond Attica Prison Reform in New York State 1971-1973, 58 CORNELL L. REV. 924 (1972-1973). This article is found in HeinOnline’s Law Journal Library. inmates’ mail, reading material, and radio programs were censored,^[7]Paul D. Meunier & Howard D. Schwartz, Beyond Attica Prison Reform in New York State 1971-1973, 58 CORNELL L. REV. 924 (1972-1973). This article is found in HeinOnline’s Law Journal Library. and most inmates were only permitted to shower once a week.^[8]Paul D. Meunier & Howard D. Schwartz, Beyond Attica Prison Reform in New York State 1971-1973, 58 CORNELL L. REV. 924 (1972-1973). This article is found in HeinOnline’s Law Journal Library. The civil rights movement happening across the country outside Attica’s walls trickled into the prison’s politics through a changing inmate population that was younger, more politically active, and frustrated with the status quo. In Congressional hearings held after the uprising, current and former inmates at Attica testified that there was racial tension and racism in Attica,^[9]American prisons in turmoil. Hearings, Ninety-second Congress, first [and second] session[s]. 2 (1972). This hearing is found in HeinOnline’s U.S. Congressional Documents. and accused officers of retaliating against inmates for interracial friendships and for preferential treatment of white inmates in prison job assignments.

In the summer of 1971, a group of Attica inmates formed the Attica Liberation Faction and wrote a manifesto detailing their demands to Department of Corrections Commissioner Russell G. Oswald, asking for, among other things, legal representation at parole hearings, better vocational training, minimum wage for inmate labor, new and properly fitting clothing, and better sanitation and food—with Muslim inmates complaining in particular about the amount of pork^[10]American prisons in turmoil. Hearings, Ninety-second Congress, first [and second] session[s]. 1 (1972). This hearing is found in HeinOnline’s U.S. Congressional Documents. served at meals and the lack of dietary alternatives. The manifesto described the mental anguish of life at Attica by claiming “the administration and prison employees no longer consider or respect us as human beings, but rather as domesticated animals selected to do their bidding in slave labor and furnished as a personal whipping dog for their sadistic, psychopathic hate.”^[11]Justin Brooks, How Can We Sleep While the Beds Are Burning–The Tumultuous Prison Culture of Attica Flourishes in American Prisons Twenty-Five Years Later, 47 SYRACUSE L. REV. 159 (1996). This article is found in … Continue reading Their demands for better education, vocational training, and meaningful rehabilitative programming called out Attica’s failing as a “correctional” institution. Later, New York State’s own investigation into the uprising would seemingly lend credence to the inmates’ grievances; in its official report, the New York State Commission on Attica found that, “The promise of rehabilitation had become a cruel joke. If anyone was rehabilitated, it was in spite of Attica, not because of it.”^[12]William L. Wilbanks, The Report of the Commission on Attica, 37 FED. PROBATION 3 (March 1973). This article is found in HeinOnline’s Law Journal Library.

Prison officials were not blind to the volatile situation churning behind Attica’s concrete walls. In 1970, then Department of Corrections Commissioner Paul D. McGinnis warned New York State Governor Nelson Rockefeller that Attica was primed for a “bloodbath”^[13]Robin Schiminger, Attica, 1 STUDENT LAW. 16 (March 1973). This article is found in HeinOnline’s Law Journal Library. if conditions at the prison were not improved. Commissioner Oswald, who took office in December 1970, attempted to institute reforms at Attica, but was stymied by budget problems.^[14]Robin Schiminger, Attica, 1 STUDENT LAW. 16 (March 1973). This article is found in HeinOnline’s Law Journal Library.

The Uprising

On September 8, 1971,^[15]William L. Wilbanks, The Report of the Commission on Attica, 37 FED. PROBATION 3 (March 1973). This article is found in HeinOnline’s Law Journal Library. a fight broke out between a white inmate and a Black inmate in the prison yard. As officers broke up the fight, one officer was hit in the chest by an inmate. That evening, the two inmates were removed from their cells and taken to segregation, but rumors flew through the prison that they had been beaten by the officers.

The next morning, after breakfast, prison officials decided not to release inmates into the exercise yard as was their normal routine. Prisoners were lined up in the tunnel leading to the exercise yard, confused why the door to the yard was locked. An officer approached the inmates to explain that they would not be permitted into the exercise yard that day. The officer was attacked, and the uprising at Attica Prison had officially begun.

Inmates quickly gained control of the prison. Prison officials were unable to coordinate a proper response to the rapidly deteriorating situation, impeded by a lack of personnel and an antiquated communications system. Within two hours,^[16]Ezra Stotland, Self-Esteem and Violence by Guards and State Troopers at Attica, 3 CRIM. JUST. & BEHAVIOR 85 (March 1976). This article is found in HeinOnline’s Law Journal Library. inmates had control of all five cell blocks, set fire to several parts of the prison, and fatally beat Corrections Officer William Quinn in the taking of the prison’s control center; some inmates would attempt to render aid to Officer Quinn, but he would later die from his injuries. State troopers and off-duty corrections officers arrived at Attica to attempt to retake the prison, but in the absence of enough manpower, negotiations^[17]William L. Wilbanks, The Report of the Commission on Attica, 37 FED. PROBATION 3 (March 1973). This article is found in HeinOnline’s Law Journal Library. began with the prisoners. 1,281 inmates gathered in the prison’s D yard with over 40 hostages.^[18]William L. Wilbanks, The Report of the Commission on Attica, 37 FED. PROBATION 3 (March 1973). This article is found in HeinOnline’s Law Journal Library.

Over the next several days, prisoners issued a list of 28 demands for penal reform to Commissioner Oswald, and citizen observers and members of the press were allowed into D yard to act as intermediaries in the negotiations. During these negotiations, inmate L.D. Barde made a statement that read, “We are men, we are not beasts and we will not be beaten or driven as such. What has happened here is but the sound before the fury of those who are oppressed.”^[19]Justin Brooks, How Can We Sleep While the Beds Are Burning–The Tumultuous Prison Culture of Attica Flourishes in American Prisons Twenty-Five Years Later, 47 SYRACUSE L. REV. 159 (1996). This article is found in … Continue reading But when the state refused to agree to the inmates’ demand for criminal amnesty,^[20]Robin Schiminger, Attica, 1 STUDENT LAW. 16 (March 1973). This article is found in HeinOnline’s Law Journal Library. negotiations broke down. Despite calls from Commissioner Oswald and the citizen observers for his presence, New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller refused to visit Attica;^[21]William L. Wilbanks, The Report of the Commission on Attica, 37 FED. PROBATION 3 (March 1973). This article is found in HeinOnline’s Law Journal Library. later, the New York State Commission on Attica would condemn Governor Rockefeller for his decision^[22]Robin Schiminger, Attica, 1 STUDENT LAW. 16 (March 1973). This article is found in HeinOnline’s Law Journal Library. in its final report.

After four days of tense negotiations, on September 13, New York State Police were sent into Attica by the state to retake the prison by force. Tear gas was dropped into the prison yard by helicopter and state troopers armed with shotguns loaded with “OO” buckshot,^[23]Robin Schiminger, Attica, 1 STUDENT LAW. 16 (March 1973). This article is found in HeinOnline’s Law Journal Library. which has a spread pattern exceeding 30 yards, stormed into Attica, firing their guns. Within 15 minutes^[24]Robert B. McKay, Attica: The Anatomy of an Investigation, 49 CHI.-KENT L. REV. 139 (Fall-Winter 1972). This article is found in HeinOnline’s Law Journal Library. state police had regained control of Attica.

Attica after the Uprising

43 people died at Attica between September 9 and 13, 1971: 33 inmates and 10 correctional officers. In the immediate aftermath, state officials reported^[25]Robin Schiminger, Attica, 1 STUDENT LAW. 16 (March 1973). This article is found in HeinOnline’s Law Journal Library. that inmates had cut the throats of hostages as state police stormed the prison, and these claims were repeated in the national press. The truth, revealed by the medical examiner, was that no hostages had been killed by inmates. 39 men—both inmates and hostages—were killed by law enforcement^[26]Bernard S. Meyer. Final Report of the Special Attica Investigation (1975). This document is found in HeinOnline’s New York Legal Research Library. while retaking the prison, and an additional 89 were wounded in the assault. Investigation by New York State into the state police’s actions concluded that “No specific safeguards were developed to avoid hitting hostages and unresisting inmates with the spread and overfire from shotgun blasts”^[27]William L. Wilbanks, The Report of the Commission on Attica, 37 FED. PROBATION 3 (March 1973). This article is found in HeinOnline’s Law Journal Library. and that “more force was used than was necessary to accomplish the retaking.”^[28]Bernard S. Meyer. Final Report of the Special Attica Investigation (1975). This document is found in HeinOnline’s New York Legal Research Library. In describing the retaking of the prison, the Special Commission on Attica wrote, “With the exception of Indian massacres in the late 19th century, the State Police assault which ended the 4-day prison uprising was the bloodiest 1-day encounter between Americans since the Civil War.”^[29]William L. Wilbanks, The Report of the Commission on Attica, 37 FED. PROBATION 3 (March 1973). This article is found in HeinOnline’s Law Journal Library.

In the uprising’s immediate aftermath, inmates reported cruel retaliation by law enforcement, claiming they were beaten, kicked, called racial slurs, and denied or received delayed medical treatment. One National Guardsman who was sent to Attica to help restore order at the prison testified he saw inmates stripped naked and forced to “run a gauntlet of correctional officers who struck them as they passed through.”^[30]453 F.2d 12 (1971). This case is provided through HeinOnline’s integration with Fastcase.

New York State appointed a Special Deputy Attorney General to form an Attica Task Force to handle any criminal prosecutions connected to the uprising and a Special Commission on Attica in the fall of 1971 to investigate the circumstances that led up to the uprising and its aftermath. The Special Commission on Attica’s final report, which was released publicly almost a year later, was highly critical of the state and its decision to retake Attica by force. In the following years, a Wyoming County grand jury returned 42 indictments against 62 prisoners^[31]Public Papers of Hugh L. Carey, Fifty-First Governor of the State of New York (1982-1996). This document is found in HeinOnline’s New York Legal Research Library. for 1,289 alleged crimes committed during the uprising; a different grand jury in 1975 recommended that one state trooper be charged with reckless endangerment, but these charges were later dismissed. Eight inmates were later convicted on various charges for actions during the uprising, including inmate John Hill for the murder of Officer William Quinn in the uprising’s first moments.

In December 1974, Malcolm Bell,^[32]Stephen C. Light, The Attica litigation, 23 CRIME L. & SOC. CHANGE 215 (1995). This article is found in HeinOnline’s Law Journal Library. a prosecutor on the Attica Task Force, resigned, claiming in a report to New York State Governor Hugh Carey that the Task Force’s investigations and prosecutions were so badly mismanaged that it amounted to a coverup of law enforcement wrongdoing. After Bell’s allegations became public, Governor Carey appointed Judge Bernard Meyer to investigate the accusations. Meyer’s final report, released in October 1975, opens with the unequivocal statement that, “There was no intentional coverup in the conduct of the Attica Investigation. There were, however, serious errors of judgment in its conduct.”^[33]Bernard S. Meyer. Final Report of the Special Attica Investigation (1975). This document is found in HeinOnline’s New York Legal Research Library.

On December 31, 1976, Governor Carey announced that the “one-sided nature of the prosecutions”^[34]Public Papers of Hugh L. Carey, Fifty-First Governor of the State of New York (1982-1996). This document is found in HeinOnline’s New York Legal Research Library. had “effectively precluded the possibility now of bringing to justice…any armed personnel who were misdirected or who abused their authority in the retaking of the facility and rehousing of the inmates.”^[35]Public Papers of Hugh L. Carey, Fifty-First Governor of the State of New York (1982-1996). This document is found in HeinOnline’s New York Legal Research Library. Carey announced that seven of the inmates who had been previously convicted would be pardoned and John Hill’s sentence would be commuted, but no additional prosecutions against any law enforcement officials for their actions at Attica would take place. “Attica has been a tragedy of immeasurable proportions,”^[36]Public Papers of Hugh L. Carey, Fifty-First Governor of the State of New York (1982-1996). This document is found in HeinOnline’s New York Legal Research Library. Carey said in his statement. “We have succeeded in dividing and polarizing the people of the State without satisfying the quest for justice in this tragedy.”^[37]Public Papers of Hugh L. Carey, Fifty-First Governor of the State of New York (1982-1996). This document is found in HeinOnline’s New York Legal Research Library.

While New York State had closed the books on Attica, civil cases from surviving inmates, hostages, and their families dragged through state courts for the next several decades. The last of these cases was settled in 2005, when New York State agreed to pay surviving hostages and the estates of those who were killed in the retaking $12 million. Attica Correctional Facility is still in operation today. Extensions to the facility have increased its capacity to 2,143 and, according to the latest available Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA) audit report from 2023, currently houses 1,636 inmates.

Beyond Crime and Punishment

The Attica Prison uprising is often cited as a major event in the prisoners’ rights movement, which focuses on topics such as felony disenfranchisement, prisoner abuse, prison rape, and solitary confinement. Some resources to learn more about these topics include HeinOnline’s Criminal Justice & Criminology database, which explores how criminal justice has changed in America and the effect criminology has had on those changes.

You can also target your research with dedicated PathFinder subjects on Prisoners, Cruel and Unusual Punishment, Correctional Institutions, and Prison Overcrowding, to name a few. Some articles relevant to prisoners’ rights include:

• Stuart Grassian, Psychiatric Effects of Solitary Confinement, 22 Wash. U. J.L. & Pol’y 325 (2006).
• Gabriel Arkles, Prison Rape Elimination Act Litigation and the Perpetuation of Sexual Harm, 17 N.Y.U. J. Legis. & Pub. Pol’y 801 (2014).
• Beyond the Ken of the Courts: A Critique of Judicial Refusal to Review the Complaints of Convicts, 72 Yale L.J. 506 (January 1963).
• Sharon Dolovich, Cruelty, Prison Conditions, and the Eighth Amendment, 84 N.Y.U. L. Rev. 881 (October 2009).
• Terence P. Thornberry & Jack E. Call, Constitutional Challenges to Prison Overcrowding: The Scientific Evidence of Harmful Effects, 35 Hastings L.J. 313 (November 1983).

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