Officials and prisoners negotiate at Attica State Correctional Facility in upstate New York, in September of 1971. (William E. Sauro / The New York Times).
Blood in the Water: The Attica Prison Uprising of 1971 and Its Legacy, by Heather Ann Thompson, Pantheon Books, 2016
Anyone who wants to understand mass incarceration needs to understand Attica. And anyone who wants to understand Attica must read Heather Thompson’s new book, Blood in the Water, the first scholarly history of the Attica prison uprising. It is a riveting tale, but a difficult one to read. Several reviewers have noted that they had to stop reading at several points, to breathe and to wipe the tears from their eyes. I join that group. As difficult as it is, this is a story that must be told.
Forty-five years ago today, on September 9, 1971, almost 1,300 prisoners took over an exercise yard at Attica prison. For months, they had filed petitions, written grievances and tried everything they could to ease the horrid conditions at Attica. They often were hungry, as prison officials only budgeted 65 cents a day per prisoner for food. There were few jobs and no opportunities for education. Racial and ethnic discrimination was rampant: Black prisoners were assigned the dirtiest, hardest manual labor jobs. While all mail was censored, any letters in Spanish were simply thrown away, hitting the Puerto Rican prisoners who received mail from their Spanish-speaking parents the hardest. Medical care was grossly inadequate, with one doctor for the entire prison. Guard brutality was unchecked.
After months of fruitless negotiations, prisoners learned that a renowned Black Panther leader, prisoner George Jackson, had been murdered in California. Prisoners at Attica honored Jackson with a one-day strike — no one said a word during breakfast and they ate nothing; no prisoner did any work or said anything to any guard all day long. In response, several prisoners were taken to solitary, infuriating the other prisoners.
On…