Video: 'Retaking of the Prison -- Sept. 13, 1971'
(Monday, September 13, 1971, 9:46 a.m. EDT; during the Attica Prison riot) — A four-day inmates’ rebellion at the Attica Correctional Facility in western New York ended this morning in a bloody clash as police and guards stormed the prison.
The ordeal and final assault claimed the lives of 32 inmates (including 29 during the assault) and 11 guards (including 10 guards held hostage at the time of the assault), becoming the bloodiest prison riot in U.S. history.
Three inmates were killed by other inmates before the assault. The rest were killed by police fire during the assault.
One guard had died from a head injury sustained before the assault, 9 were killed by friendly fire during the assault and one would die on Oct. 9, 1971.
Video: 'Attica Prison Riot - William Kunstler: Disturbing the Universe . POV on PBS'
Another 85 inmates and five correctional officers (three by friendly fire, two by inmates’ knives) and one state trooper (by friendly fire) were wounded.
The revolt was based upon prisoners’ demands for better living conditions and political rights. On Sept. 9, 1971, 1,281 out 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, but would not agree to demands for complete amnesty from criminal prosecution for the prison takeover or for the removal of Attica’s superintendent.
Video: 'The Attica Prison Uprising: Forty Years Later'
By the order of Governor Nelson Rockefeller, state police took back control of the prison.
Rockefeller, who refused to meet with the prisoners during the rebellion, stated that the prisoners “carried out the cold-blood killings they had threatened from the outset,” despite the fact that the deaths of only one of the officers and three of the inmates were attributed to the prisoners.
As a result of the riot, a number of changes were made in the New York prison system to satisfy some of the prisoners’ demands, reduce tension in the system and prevent such incidents in the future.
