Once a staple scene in Warner Brothers B films, the prison riot has become
an ugly constant of American life. As time passes, the revolts of angry convicts
get better organized, more political and harder to bring under control. Last
week, at the turreted Attica Correctional Facility in upstate New York, 1,200
of the 2,250 inmates, most of them blacks, seized control of one cell block
and parts of two others. They grabbed more than 30 guards as hostages, then
locked the gates shut against a gathering force of more than 1,000
heavily armed police, state troopers and National Guardsmen. Rejecting
surrender demands from prison officials, the convicts shouted
instructions back from the captured central watchtower through
makeshift megaphones. They demanded, and were allowed, outside lawyers
and observers of their own choice to help them bargain with state
authorities. The tense deadlock continued for three days and into the weekend. While
the impasse lasted, reported TIME Correspondent James Willwerth, the
55-acre prison compound in the lush and rolling countryside near
Buffalo looked like the playground for some fantasy war game. Tear-gas-carrying helicopters at times hovered over the prison yards.
Officers with high-powered rifles pointed their weapons from atop the
30-ft. walls. Behind police barriers, local youths guzzled beer and
wisecracked about the jailhouse drama. Later, both black and white
groups of radicals converged on Attica, demonstrating on behalf of the
prisoners. Inside cell block D, inmates armed with baseball bats, claw
hammers, clubs and tear-gas canisters kept close guard over their
hostages. In the prison yard, with the cool intensity of guerrillas,
leaders of the rebellion put forward demands as inmate typists recorded
the dialogue between the negotiators. Dinnertime Incident. No one was certain precisely what had triggered the
uprising, which appeared to be spontaneous rather than long-planned.
The inmates themselves discounted the importance of a dinnertime
incident one evening last week in which two prisoners hurled glass
shards at a guard; the offenders were thrown into solitary confinement
and, they claimed, beaten. Next morning after breakfast, one group of
inmates refused to line up for a work detail, and the riot was on. In a
short time, windows in nearly every cell block were smashed, bedding
and furniture were set afire, and three buildings were burned out.
Guards were quickly captured. Some of the hostages were beaten, and the
rebels eventually released those needing medical attention. Guard
William Quinn, 28, who apparently was thrown out a window, died of head
injuries two days later. After the initial violence, the prisoners
treated their hostages with care, giving them blankets, food and clothing.
