Thirty years after Attica: Prison conditions even worse

September 9-13 marks the 30th anniversary of the uprising at Attica Correctional 
Facility in New York. More than 1,200 prisoners took control of the prison's D-
Yard and 39 hostages and demanded the prison administration implement basic 
reforms, such as decent wages and an end to the censorship of newspapers. 
Despite the prisoners' good faith negotiations and the presence of outside 
observers from radical and mainstream media, Governor Nelson Rockefeller ordered 
a military assault to retake the prison.

National guardsmen and correctional officers killed thirty-two prisoners and ten 
hostages in the assault. Many more prisoners were brutally tortured.
The Attica prisoners' demands -- and their courageous and determined struggle -- 
remain relevant today. 

Strengths and weaknesses

To appreciate the events at Attica, it is first necessary to put them in proper 
political and historical context.

The Attica uprising was ITAL not END a completely spontaneous event. It happened 
because the material conditions for resistance were ripe. There had been 
political study groups in most of the major wings, and prisoner consciousness 
had been developed to a point where the entire population could act as a single 
fist. Sam Melville, an Attica prisoner, had been publishing a little underground 
paper he wrote by hand, with as many carbon copies as he could make. It was 
called the Iced Pig.

The prisoners saw their rebellion as one battle in a continuous struggle waged 
on an international level, not just one isolated incident.

Well-thought-out demands had been drawn up and submitted to the state's 
corrections bureaucracy for resolution (see list on page 6). When no action was 
taken by officials, prisoners backed their demands with a ten-day peaceful work 
strike. The strike ended with a shopping cart full of pious promises that were 
never honored. Then, on Aug. 21, 1971, when George Jackson was murdered at San 
Quentin, Attica cons wore black armbands and boycotted the mess hall for a day. 
All of these actions reflected a high degree of political unity.

On September 9, 1971, less than a month after the boycott, a fight broke out in 
one of the wings. Through an unusual combination of circumstances, such as 
prisoners inadvertently gaining access to an important gate, the fight became a 
takeover of sections of the prison, including D-Yard. Even though the rebellion 
was not planned, D-Yard prisoners quickly and efficiently organized themselves 
into a commune. They had no weapons to speak of and their level of outside 
support was negligible.

The rebelling prisoners seemed to be aware of their weaknesses, as they 
immediately called upon cons in other New York prisons and the progressive 
community on the outside to back their play. This call was made through the mass 
media, the presence of which was a precondition to negotiations. Another 
precondition was the formation of an observer team selected by the prisoners. 
These and other threshold demands indicate how conscious the prisoners were of 
their vulnerability; they also reflect a deep level of understanding as to what 
was necessary to overcome their weaknesses.

One of the lessons pro-prisoner activists have drawn from the Attica uprising is 
the need to develop organizational links among those on the inside and between 
those on the inside and outside ITAL before END the shit hits the fan. That's 
why MIM gives free MIM Notes subscriptions to prisoners, helps them form study 
groups by sending them free books on revolutionary history and theory, initiated 
the prisoner mass organization United Struggle from Within, and works with many 
prisoners on pressing demands. We accumulate strength and build organizational 
ties with each struggle.

This is a painstaking, long term approach. We know there are many prisoners from 
the "school of hard knocks" who want to "throw down" ITAL now. END We tell such 
prisoners bluntly: "It is not our turn yet for armed struggle." Armed struggle 
in the imperialist countries can be much like taking drugs--a momentary thrill 
unattached to a real political plan.

Or, as another prisoner put it in an essay commemorating the 20th anniversary of 
the Attica rebellion, "The advocates of 'off the pigs' and 'burn it to the 
ground' should have their perspectives examined in the light of reality. They 
burned McAlester down in the early 70s, but has that improved the lot of 
prisoners there? No! The same for New Mexico. Prisoners in those joints are 
still overcrowded, degraded, powerless, and no nearer to making forward 
progress. ... Instead of acts against low-level flunkies or quickly replaced 
prison property, people should prepare for the long-range struggle that lies 
ahead."

Liberals vow reform

In 1972, the New York State Special Commission on Attica, appointed to 
investigate the slaughter, concluded, among other things, that overcrowding, 
inhumane conditions, and lack of educational and other rehabilitative programs 
were at the root of the uprising. Attica prisoners were allowed only one shower 
per week. They were allowed visits only through wire mesh, and interception and 
censorship of mail was the norm. In the metal shop, prisoners worked for 
$.29/day.(1)

"If the state is to take seriously its stated commitment to rehabilitation, and 
not custody alone, dramatic innovation is inescapably necessary," the Commission 
said in its report, hailed by the New York Times as a "superb document, sweeping 
in scope ... an urgent call for correctional reform."(2)

Some of the reforms recommended by the Commission and other liberal crusaders 
were implemented for a time, but many were repealed during the 90s. Prisoners 
were denied access to Pell Grants to take college classes; prison library 
budgets were slashed; GED programs disappeared. Rehabilitation ceased to the 
stated goal for many state prison systems; ITAL revanche END and punishment took 
its place.

Indicative of this is the return of the chain gang. As Mumia Abu Jamal 
explained: "The return of this practice, one which has similar symbology as 
slavery, is a testament to the ulterior motive of U.S. corrections: humiliation. 
... For 12 grueling hours a day, men in chains, chafing, biting leg irons, slash 
and chop at weeds, making Alabama beautiful for tourists. While the highways of 
'Bama are beautified, their treatment of sentient humans are uglified. As an act 
of State Power, corrections is a synonym for 'humiliation,' a legislative echo 
of degradation."(3) Even such small perks like free weights and the freedom to 
wear one's hair as one liked it were removed.(4)

Already in 1991, an Attica prisoner wrote to MIM to say the system of guard 
brutality and miserable living conditions remains the same. "The oppressors have 
gone so far as to name A-block South Africa, and they thrive on oppressing, 
beating and living up to the expectations that the oppressors in South Africa 
represent."

So in some ways, conditions in Amerikan prisons are ITAL worse END now than in 
1971. Certainly there are far more prisoners now than thirty years ago. The 
population in Amerika's jails and prisons grew slightly during the 70s, but from 
1980 to 1999, it jumped 275%.(5) Now it stands at over 1.9 million -- compared 
to less than 500,000 in 1971.

Imperialism doesn't stop for bleeding hearts

But the fact that the "dramatic innovation" called for in the aftermath of the 
massacre has not taken place is beside the point. The Attica prisoners in 1971 
were not asking for the sort of reforms liberals then and now are so anxious to 
implement in order to make themselves feel better. The Attica prisoners 
recognized the criminal justice system as a powerful weapon in the arsenal of 
the capitalist class, and they wanted to turn that weapon on their oppressors.
"We have discovered ... the frustration of negotiating with a political system 
bent on genocide," the prisoners wrote in a statement smuggled out during the 
week following the massacre. "Killings are being committed not only in VietNam, 
but in Bengla Desh, Africa and South America. Is it not so that our Declaration 
of Independence provides that when a government oppresses the people, they have 
a right to abolish it and create a new government? And we at 'Attica' and all 
revolutionaries across the nation are exercising that right! The time is now 
that all third world people acknowledge the true oppressor and expose him to the 
world!!"(6)

Whatever the extent of prison reform, prisoners still experience the same 
political repression and daily brutality that triggered the Attica uprising, 
because capitalism still requires prisons to perform the same function as they 
did 20 years ago. Indeed, as U.$. imperialism struggles to maintain its 
hegemony, its internal system of repression only becomes harsher.

Same repression, different decade

Direct criminal justice expenditures for state, federal and local governments in 
the United States totaled $7.5 billion in 1968.(7) By 1982, that figure was $9.0 
billion. And by 1997, it was $43.5 billion -- a 580% increase.

And in case anyone was harboring any illusions, the consistent increase in 
prison funding over the years hasn't been sunk into decorating prison cells. 
It's being spent on repression, in all its varied forms.

When the all-white staff of Attica prison guards stormed the yard on Sept. 13, 
several yelling "save me a nigger!" the racist, imperialist ideology 
underpinning Amerika's prison system was hard to overlook.(8)

New York Times associate editor Tom Wicker, a quintessential liberal, had been 
invited by the prisoners to observe the events that transpired in D-Yard, and he 
dutifully reported, with a healthy dose of moral outrage, the blatant racism of 
the situation.

"Certainly, the situation in D-Yard could not be separated from the racial 
divisions and animosities of a society throughout whose history the black-white 
line had been as insurmountable as a Berlin Wall of the mind," Wicker wrote in 
his book-length account of the uprising which he dedicated to "the dead at 
Attica."(9)

Correcting the racial balance has been a prime target of prison reformists over 
the years, wracked as they were with white guilt in the aftermath of Attica and 
stuck on the mistaken belief that a few more dark-skinned people in pig uniforms 
would somehow make things better -- as if the color of their skin does not 
prevent them from beating and harassing the prisoners. Still, only 2% of 
Attica's 600 guards were non-white in 1991. And evidently it's hard to root 
white supremacist out a white supremacist system. One guard who had been 
censured for distributing literature from the National Association for the 
Advancement of White People as early as 1988 was just fired this year -- for 
raping a prisoner.(10)

Similarly, much horror was expressed in the New York State Commission's report 
at the blatant exploitation of prisoners' labor reflected in their salaries of 
35 cents a day or less. Thirty years later, Corcraft -- New York State 
Department of Correction's business which makes road signs, office supplies, and 
other goods for sale to the government -- pays prisoners $.16 to $.45 per hour. 
And those are the good jobs. "[New York] inmates in non-industrial institution 
assignments are paid an average of $.17/hour." Most Texas prisoners are not paid 
at all. Instead they receive "good time" credit, which can be taken away at any 
time by arbitrary disciplinary action.(11)

But the most telling comparison of the present with the past is that the 
prisoners that populate the Attica of 1991 are pulled from the same class and 
the same oppressed nations as were those behind the prison's bars in 1971. More 
than 80% of prisoners in New York were non-white in 1997.(12) In the whole 
united $tates, Blacks are incarcerated at a rate 6 times that of whites; 
"Hispanics" at a rate more than twice that of whites.(13)

Not surprisingly, Amerika's capitalist ruling class has continued to identify 
its enemies as the poor and the members of its internal colonies. The U.S. 
prison population has more than quadrupled since 1970 to its current peak of 
close to two million. Twenty years later, the capitalists have not lost sight of 
the benefits of keeping a substantial number of people from these groups 
incarcerated.

"Every prison is Attica."

"That the explosion occurred first at Attica was probably chance," the New York 
State Commission wrote in its report. "But the elements for replication are all 
around us. Attica is every prison; and every prison is Attica."(14)

Such stirring words were meant to inspire -- and did, in fact, inspire -- a wave 
of reform that would prevent the replication they foretell. But the level of 
violence in the prison system today reflects the failure of reform efforts. The 
Commission's warning still holds true, as does the warning they didn't utter. 
Just as the conditions that caused the Attica prisoners to rise up still exist, 
so do the conditions that caused the state to shoot them down. And it happens 
all the time.

Here are just a few examples MIM has reported on before:

1. On February 23, 1999, guards at Pelican Bay Prison in California opened fire 
on prisoners, wounding eight and murdering one. Prison officials have completely 
locked down Pelican Bay, worsening its already repressive conditions. The 
shooting came on the same day that two former Pelican Bay prison pigs were 
indicted on federal civil rights charges for allowing guards and prisoners to 
attack "disliked" prisoners. The previous week, another Pelican Bay pig was 
convicted of violating a prisoner's civil rights by shooting and wounding him.
Pelican Bay State Prison is part of California's immense prison industrial 
complex. Built for 2,280 prisoners, it now warehouses 3,400 prisoners, at least 
1,200 of whom are permanently locked down in the notorious Security Housing Unit 
(SHU). Prisoners in the SHU are caged for 22.5 hours in windowless, white cells, 
alone or with one other hostage. Prisoncrats claim that it is only violent 
prisoners who are housed in the SHU. However, we have investigated and know that 
many prisoners are locked down because of their political beliefs.

The explosive growth of "Control Units" like California's SHUs is another reason 
we can say conditions for prisoners now are worse than they were in 1971.(1)

2. Starting on December 24, 1999, New York state pigs locked down two prisons to 
prevent prisoners from striking. The lockdown, in this and most cases, meant 
pigs confined prisoners to their cells for 23 hours a day. Prisoners had been 
planning strikes in eight prisons, attempting to bring attention to rigid state 
parole policies.(1)

3. Prisoners at Southport Correctional Facility seized control of a prison yard 
in May 1991, took hostages, issued a set of grievances and demands for more 
humane conditions, and called in media observers. The prison administration 
negotiated with them for a day, then called in the state troopers to retake the 
prison by force. And, following the pattern of events at Attica, prisoners 
involved in the protest were subjected to severe retaliation after the T.V. 
teams left.(15)

A report issued in June by the Prisoners' Legal Services of New York states: "It 
is clear that just as in the aftermath of the Attica uprising, 20 years ago, no 
plans were made for the provision of appropriate medical care or other necessary 
services following the ending of the uprising, resulting in much needless 
suffering by inmates who had nothing to do with the disturbance."(16)

At Attica, immediately following the massacre, prisoners were forced to strip 
and run through a gauntlet as guards beat them with nightsticks. In the weeks 
following, they were burned, beaten, shot and denied medical care.(17)

At Southport, prisoners were beaten, denied medical care, forced to live in 
grossly unsanitary conditions and submit to several other forms of abuse in the 
weeks following last May's uprising.(15)

Unfortunately, Prisoners' Legal Services, an organization formed as a result of 
the Attica uprising, confined itself to the same sort of reformist conclusions 
in its report on Southport as the New York state commission did in its report on 
Attica: more educational services, better medical care, expanded visitation 
rights, etc. 

"The uprising... will not end here!"

"These brothers whose lives were taken by Rockefeller [ex-New York governor] and 
his agents did not die in vain. Why?" the Attica prisoners wrote in their 
statement following the massacre.

"Because the uprising in Attica did not start here nor will it end here!"(6)
To continue the revolutionary struggle that the Attica prisoners were a part of, 
those both inside and outside the walls must adopt a revolutionary strategy. 
Thirty years later, that much should be glaringly clear to those who would like 
to count themselves in solidarity with the Attica prisoners and the prison 
struggles that continue today.

ITAL Based on articles by MC11 and a prisoner on the 20th anniversary of the 
Attica uprising, which ran in MIM Notes 56, Sep 1991. Edited and updated by 
MC206. END

Notes:
1. "MIM commemorates Attica struggle," MIM Notes 193, 1 Sep 1999.
2. Attica: The Official Report of the New York State Special 
Commission on Attica, Praeger Publishers, New York, 1972, p.8.
3. Mumia Abu Jamal, 11 may 1995.
4. "California prison expansion," MIM Notes 165, 1 Jul 1998.
5. Bureau of Justice Statistics Correctional Surveys.
6. Berkeley Tribe Vol. 6, no. 8, Oct.1-7, 1971.
7. Op. cit. 2, p.xxiii.
8. The Nation, 25 Mar 91, p. 364.
9. Tom Wicker, A Time to Die , New York Times Book Co., New York, 
1975, p. 146.
10. New York State DOC press release, 
http://www.docs.state.ny.us/PressRel/arrestpr.html.
11. Corcraft homepage, http://www.corcraft.org.
12. Barry Holman, "Masking the divide: How officially reported prison statistics 
distort the racial and ethnic realities of prison growth," 
www.ncianet.org/ncia/mask.pdf.
13. See "Amerikan Lockdown Index" in this issue.
14. Op. cit. 1, p.xii.
15. MIM Notes 54 and 55, July and August 1991.
16. Southport 1991: Conditions Before and After the Uprising, A 
Report By Prisoners' Legal Services of New York, June 24-26, 1991. 
For a copy, write to: PLS,102 W. Street, Ithaca, New York, 14850.
17. Op. cit. 2, p. 443.