A Lesson to be Learned: 40 Plus Years After Attica

What can be learned about the Attica Prison Riot that can benefit society today? This riot began a chain reaction that changed the way the corrections department of this country works. Society should care about this uprising because it set a precedent that molded the way this country controls its prison population. New procedures and precedents were set that are still in place today and may not have been created had the riot never happened. First, we will learn about the conditions of the prison before the riot. Then, we will learn the demands of the prisoners and why some guards and prison workers were treated more harshly than others. Next, we learn whether or not the New York officials acted in “good faith” or not and how they finally reclaimed the prison. Finally, we will learn whether New York officials acted ethically in blaming and whether or not the guards should be compensated for the hardships they endured during the uprising. Despite the horrific acts that occurred during the uprising, we can learn to avoid another situation like this based on the information that we now know.

The living conditions within the prison were awful to say the least. Inmates were only allowed one roll of toilet paper per month, and only one shower per week. According to the documentary, Ghosts of Attica, the inmates were primarily urbanized minorities; while the guards were all white and born and raised in the suburbs of the city. This led the guards to have a very biased opinion of the inmates. They considered them to all be “thugs”, and “delinquents”. The inmates had very little religious freedom and some had no way of communicating with the guards because the guards could only speak one language. Leading up to the riot, the prison was ov...

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... lesson. It leaves us a precedent of how to handle unruly inmates and to satisfy their reasonable needs. From this riot we can learn ways to avoid another uprising. We need to understand as a society that there is a necessary fear that this could happen again and happen anywhere and we know how to handle such a situation and how to prevent another one.

Works Cited

FRAZIER, CRAIG D. "Attica Rebellion turns 40." New York Amsterdam News 28 July 2011: 29. Academic Search Complete. Web. 11 Nov. 2013.

Ghosts of Attica. Dir. Brad Lichtenstein. Icarus Films, 2001. Videocassette.

Segura, Liliana. "Attica At 40." Nation 293.13 (2011): 8. Academic Search Complete. Web. 11 Nov. 2013.

"Attica Prison Riot." Democrat and Chronicle. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Nov. 2013.

"Attica - A Judgment On America." New Statesman 135.4814 (2006): 62. Academic Search Complete. Web. 12 Nov. 2013.