In September 1971, prisoners at Attica prison in replace New York revolted in protest of inhumane residing situations.
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In September 1971, prisoners at Attica prison in replace New York revolted in protest of inhumane residing situations.
Showtime/Firelight
Fifty years in the past, Attica most safety prison in upstate New York was notorious for its harsh situations. Prisoners had been issued one roll of bathroom paper every month. Asking for extra meant risking a beatdown.
Arthur Harrison, who was sentenced to 5 years in Attica in 1971, says Black prisoners had been handled particularly severely. “It reminded me of the things I used to hear about on plantations in slavery,” he says. “They treated us like we weren’t human.”
On Sept. 9, 1971, tensions boiled over as greater than 1,000 prisoners, together with Harrison, revolted, seizing 39 guards as hostages and gaining management of the prison. Documentary filmmaker Stanley Nelson tells the story of the uprising in his new movie, Attica.
Nelson describes the takeover as a terrifying occasion — for each prisoners and guards.
“There were sociopaths and psychopaths in the yard,” he says. “And it was this really strange dynamic that you have to be scared of the people in the yard, [and] you’ve got to be scared of law enforcement, which are on the walkways in the towers that surrounded the prison with guns, aiming guns down on all the prisoners in the yard.”
The standoff in the prison grew to become a nationwide drama as reporters and TV cameras had been allowed inside the prison yard as one among the prisoners’ calls for.
Five days after it started, the uprising resulted in a bloody assault by regulation enforcement. Harrison was shot in the again of his arm, and 39 prisoners and hostages had been killed, all by regulation enforcement gunfire. After the smoke cleared, prisoners had been stripped bare and pressured to crawl by way of a latrine and then to run down a corridor between two rows of guards who beat them as they ran.
Nelson says the story of the Attica prison revolt is one about race, class, energy and prison reform — themes that stay resonant today.
“Conditions in prisons have probably gotten a little better [since 1971]. They get more toilet paper now,” he says. “But there’s two million people in prison … in the United States. Two million people will not see the sky at night tonight.”
Interview highlights
On guards forming “goon squads” to beat the prisoners at evening
Harrison: They would are available in with 4 or 5 guys; they’d rush a man in a cell. You don’t have any method of retaining 4 or 5 guys off you except you had been Superman or anyone like that. Then they’d beat you down, drag you out the cell and take you to the field the place you’ll get crushed once more.
Arthur Harrison was a 21-year-old inmate at the time of the Attica revolt.
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Arthur Harrison was a 21-year-old inmate at the time of the Attica revolt.
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Nelson: The situations had been simply horrible, and the guards weren’t skilled in any respect. … Attica in New York is about 250 miles from New York City. And it’s in a really rural neighborhood and the solely jobs there could be dairy farming or working in the prison, and the neighborhood was all white. … But additionally, at the similar time, coming in from the outdoors was change. There was George Jackson who was preaching change, and Malcolm X and the Black Panthers and the Young Lords. That was all occurring at the similar time.
On how the uprising started
Nelson: Attica was divided into 4 sections, and the hallways all met at this place referred to as “Times Square,” so Times Square was like the middle hub. And when the prisoners started to insurgent, started to riot, they started banging on the gate at Times Square and one among the gates [had] a defective weld in the gate, and the gate got here down and broke, and the prisoners seized the guards there at Times Square. And so then the prisoners managed the prison — and it occurred actually rapidly. And in some methods, it was actually due to this defective welding job that was accomplished, we expect, from when the prison was first constructed.
On why they put the guards in prison uniforms
Harrison: The level for that was when somebody would attempt to retake the prison with weapons, like they did, they would not know who the [were] prisoners [or] which one was a guard, so they’d watch out about the taking pictures. There was an entire level of that. They would not have are available in blazing and taking pictures as a result of they did not wish to kill their comrades, however they killed them anyway.
On the prisoners having 30 calls for, together with amnesty for the uprising
Nelson: The prisoners’ calls for had been actually simply to be handled as human beings, they had been: getting extra bathroom paper, getting extra visiting hours, issues like that, issues that would simply be met. And to [prison commissioner Russell] Oswald’s credit score, he in a short time agreed to 28 of the 30 calls for. The one demand that every little thing hinged on was amnesty, as a result of the prisoners needed amnesty, not for the crimes that that they had dedicated outdoors of prison that acquired them there. They needed amnesty for something that was accomplished in the insurrection, as a result of there was an actual concern that each one of the prisoners could be tried en masse for every little thing — for destroying property, for injuring [guard Billy Quinn], for taking prisoners, kidnapping, every little thing. … So the prisoners had been asking for amnesty for something that occurred throughout the riot.
Harrison: [After Billy Quinn’s death, we] grew to become extra fearful as a result of that is why the brothers needed the so-called amnesty invoice. Because we had been listening to issues, not figuring out issues when that acquired finalized, that this officer died. No one needed that to occur. And when it occurred … we realized all of us might be charged with homicide.
On regulation enforcement’s violent retaking of the prison
Nelson: It was actually a regulation enforcement riot. Over 500 regulation enforcement brokers, state troopers and ex-prison guards, no matter, stormed the prison with rifles, shotguns. And they had been up on the catwalks and first tear gasoline was shot down on [the prisoners]. So it was all smoky and [law enforcement] actually could not see something. They had been simply firing down randomly at the prisoners. Again, I wish to reiterate that they could not see what they had been doing, so they only fired over and over once more. There’s one New York state surveillance tape … of the riot, and it’s unbelievable how lengthy they had been firing. It’s about 9 minutes of straight taking pictures down into the yard.
Stanley Nelson is an Emmy Award-winning documentarian. His earlier movies and documentary sequence embrace Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool, The Murder of Emmett Till and Tulsa Burning: The 1921 Race Massacre.
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Showtime/Firelight
Stanley Nelson is an Emmy Award-winning documentarian. His earlier movies and documentary sequence embrace Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool, The Murder of Emmett Till and Tulsa Burning: The 1921 Race Massacre.
Showtime/Firelight
Harrison: It was one thing I by no means skilled earlier than — burning of your lungs, your eyes and every little thing like that as a result of it was raining at the similar time, you could not breathe and you could not see. … It was like a wild Fourth of July. You hear firecrackers constantly, constantly, constantly. That’s what the gunshots had been like.
Nelson: The helicopter saved broadcasting over and over once more, “Surrender with your hands up. You will not be harmed. Surrender and you will not be harmed.” But there was nowhere to give up to. Again, they had been up on the catwalks, simply firing down. So no, there was no strategy to give up, as a result of there was no person to give up to.
On how the uprising ended
Nelson: There was a scene of tons of of lifeless and wounded mendacity on the floor, and the regulation enforcement had fully taken over the prison. But it did not cease there. Then it simply was a scene of assorted tortures. L.D. Barkley, who was one among the leaders, was sought out and murdered. The prisoners had been made to crawl by way of the latrines that that they had dug, by way of human waste. They had been advised that in the event that they lifted their heads, they’d be killed.
Harrison: I’ve seen folks getting shot at earlier than, however not like this. People had been laying on prime of individuals and stuff, hollering from the ache of being shot and [they] weren’t getting no assist. What sort of human being does that to a different human being?
On the authentic experiences that incorrectly stated that the 10 guards killed had their throats slit
Nelson: The authentic report was that the hostages had had their throats lower and that a part of the purpose why that was thought at first was as a result of prisoners introduced the guards out into the yard and put knives to their throat, home made knives to their throat. And they thought that perhaps that might cease the assault. … It was only a risk. When the assault really occurred, it was came upon the subsequent day that no guards had gotten their throats slit in any respect, and the 10 guards that had been killed had been all killed by gunfire. … I feel the health worker really stated [the truth] the subsequent day. But what occurred was that the first report on the information was that that they had their throats slit. So that was believed. The retraction shouldn’t be heard in the similar method as the first assertion. So to today, some folks still consider that the hostages’ throats had been slit, though no hostages’ throats had been slit in any respect.
On the $12 million settlement paid to the prisoners
Nelson: There was a fee. Everybody testified. People’s statements had been heard, however in the finish, no person was prosecuted for the deaths in Attica. No one was prosecuted for the torture that occurred at Attica. The prisoners had a lawsuit that went on for 25 years, and after 25 years, they really acquired a $12 million settlement due to the abuse that that they had suffered. … [Divided between the former prisoners] it’s not a ton of cash. And as the former prisoners have stated in the movie, it wasn’t about cash. “Money can’t bring back the dead and bring back what was taken from us.” To today, they’re clearly still traumatized by what occurred 50 years in the past.
Lauren Krenzel and Kayla Lattimore produced and edited this interview for broadcast. Bridget Bentz, Molly Seavy-Nesper and Natalie Escobar tailored it for the net.
