Did the Attica prison riot 40 years ago lead to today's prison industrial complex?

In the motion picture “Dog Day Afternoon” one of the more famous scenes from the movie was of Al Pacino getting the crowd outside the bank riled up by shouting “Attica …Attica … Attica” as a way of gaining support for himself and his misplaced friend during their botched bank robbery attempt that was the main plot of the movie.  Pacino’s rallying cry was a reference to the riot at Attica Correctional Facility in Attica, New York that took place on September 13, 1971.  The riot claimed 43 lives, including the lives of 29 inmates and 10 correctional officers and civilian prison employees.  It was the bloodiest prison confrontation in American history.  It is difficult to believe that it has been 40 years since this riot that was a direct result of the tone of race relations in general and within America’s prison industrial complex in the late 1960s and early 1970s.  (A cynic would ask WHAT has changed.  Hmm …)   
   At this point in time, America was coming apart at the seams.  There were the 1968 assassinations of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Robert Kennedy; the Vietnam War was highly unpopular and there were demonstrations against the war all over the place; the intent of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was constantly being met with resistance by a large swath of Americans particularly in the South; the Black Panther Party, born in Oakland, California, had become prominent to mainstream America to the point where then F.B.I. Director J.Edgar Hoover became absolutely OBSESSED with destroying the organization; there were the Soledad Brothers; the Weathermen and other like minded organizations that were labeled as communists and subversive.  Marvin Gaye released a protest album in 1971, “What’s Going On?” where in the title track he described what was going on in America in a few short lyrics: “Picket lines … and picket signs.  Don’t punish me with brutality.  Talk to me … so you can see … what’s goin’ on”.  America was a powder keg with a VERY short fuse that was lit. 
   The riot at Attica was motivated by BOTH brutality and racism.  On September 9, during morning roll call a handful of prisoners freed a fellow inmate who was in an isolated cell and was, according to prison scuttlebutt, scheduled to be tortured for assaulting a corrections officer.  Torture of inmates was routine in Attica.  There were racial overtones to the torture as well.  Of the 2,225 inmates in Attica, 54% (1,200) were black and 9% were Puerto Rican and ALL 383 corrections officers at the prison were white.  Black prisoners were routinely beaten by corrections officers with batons that were dubbed “nigger sticks”.  The conditions for inmates in the prison were extreme.  Inmates were only allowed to take ONE shower per week and were issued ONE roll of toilet paper per month.  The black prisoners were already on edge having heard of the death of Black Panther and co-founder of the Black Guerilla Family George Jackson, who was shot and killed on August 21, 1971 during an escape attempt from San Quentin State Prison in California.  So when prison officials ordered the inmates back to their cells after breakfast instead of being allowed to go on the yard as usual, the inmates sprung into action and took over D yard and the prison’s central control room in addition to taking 43 hostages. 
   The inmates presented a list of demands over the course of a 4 day negotiating period and actually had 28 of their demands agreed to by prison officials.  The prisoners also demanded to speak directly with New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller, who refused to come to the prison.  After negotiations with state corrections officials failed, a team of neutral negotiators was impaneled that included famed criminal and civil rights lawyer William Kunstler (William Kunstler Attica documentary on PBS), Louis Farrakhan (then National Representative of the Nation of Islam) and Tom Wicker, an editor with the New York Times.  After these negotiators were unable to persuade the inmates to release the hostages, Governor Rockefeller ordered prison officials to retake the prison by force.  So on the morning of September 13, 1971 tear gas was dropped in D Yard and New York State Police and prison corrections officers opened fire into the smoke.  It was a blood bath.  Forty three lives were lost and nearly a hundred others were seriously wounded.  In the aftermath, prisoners were retaliated against with regularity and the prison's corrections officers did so with impunity.  There was a commission formed to study what happened at Attica and how to prevent such an event from happening again.  The commission’s findings were a scathing report on the conditions in Attica and the poor preparedness of prison personnel for such an event.  Forty years later, the riot at Attica remains a stain in the history in the history of America’s penal system. 
   Today there are approximately 2 million people incarcerated in America.  Not much has really changed.  Prisons today are grossly overcrowded (as Attica was) and less than a third of those incarcerated have been convicted of violent crime.  Crimes that in other countries would lead to fines, community service or drug rehabilitation or not considered a crime at all will lead to a prison sentence in America.  Why is that?  Simple; incarceration is BIG BUSINESS in America.  In fact, ten states (Alaska, Arizona, Hawaii, Idaho, Mississippi, Montana, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Vermont) rely MOSTLY on private prisons.  Rortybomb, a financial and economic blog, provides some compelling statistics on the private correctional facilities in the Unted States. (How Extensive Are Private Prisons In Our Country?)  There is a huge private prison lobby that is saturated in Washington and in state capitols all over America.  In an article in The Atlantic (The Prison Industrial Complex), the dynamics of the privatization of correctional facilities are detailed.  Much like hotels, private prisons need “guests” in order to make a profit.  Private prisons are not burdened with rules and regulations as state run prisons are.  The lure of big money and politicians eager to pass “tough on crime” legislation is corrupting America’s criminal justice system.  In Missouri, dead beat dads are being incarcerated.  Should someone who doesn’t pay child support be incarcerated?  Failure to pay child support IS irresponsible but hardly a crime. 
   It has been 40 years since the Attica riots and since then prisons have become bigger, plentiful, high tech and in many cases privatized.  So the next time you hear of or see a new multimillion dollar high tech prison go up in your state, there is a historic point of reference for you to blame. 

Attica, Attica, Attica …

Peace, peace in the Middle East!

Craig Riggins

Follow me on Twitter: TheProdigal517
Facebook: Craig Riggins
Email: theprodigalreturns517@gmail.com