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page three

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NEWS PHONE: 764-0552
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Sunday, September 19, 1.971 Ann Arbor, Michigan News Phone: 764-0552
REVIEWING THE TRAGEDY

Attica,
Continued from Page 1)
tiary like seismologists analyz-
ing the rumbles of an active vol-
cano.
Disturbing sounds of change
came rumbling out of Attica
earlier this year with petitions
and complaints. The commun-
ity outside heard them. But.
there had always been those
high concrete walls between
them and the legions of desper-
ate men they envisaged inside.
When alarm bells began echo-
ing through the quiet little
town at breakfast time on
Thursday, they felt those walls
had come tumbling down. Hus-
bands were in the clutches of
prisoners. Fear and hysteria
gripped the community.
A combination of all these
factors - the prisoner activists'
the rural guards, reforms, and
community outside - seemed to
lead inexorably toward the
bloody four minutes of Monday,
Sept. 13.
Interviews all week in, Attica
developed these facts about the
main issues in the uprising.
The Prison Itself
The designation "m a x i m u m
security" for Attica is a mea-
sure of its reputed impervious-
ness to escape. It does not ap-
ply to conditions inside the
walls.
Only one prisoner, Joseph Sul-
livan, has escaped those w al11s
capped by 14 locked guard tow-
ers. All the guns are on the
walls. Down below among the
prisoners the guards c a r r y
nightsticks. They are outnum-
bered by inmates by about sev-
en to one, the ratio for most
of the nation's prisons.
At times only one guard might
shepherd a company of 84 pri-
soners to a meal. The Attica in-
mates began their insurrection
by turning on their guards, over-
whelming them with numbers,
physically restraining them
while running rampage over the
whole 55-acre prison compound.,
This kind of internal rebellion
could erupt at any time in any
American prison, the willingness
of the inmates to challenge
authority being the critical fac-
tor.
The Prisoners
They were mostly from New

four minutes one

0

0

rainy morning

York City, and mostly black, in
Attica.
In cell block D, where the in-
surrection began and remained
rebel headquarters, there were
300 black prisoners, about 10
Puerto Ricans, and 100 whites,
the strong minority flavor pres-
ent because block D was a
"school block." A block was pre-
dominately white.
A typical Block D yard scene
was recalled by Douglas Smith
of Batavia, who served 21
months'in Attica until late July
when he was paroled on a forg-
ery charge.
"You saw it every afternoon.
There would be the Black Mus-
lims, heads cleanly shaved,
trousers creased, praying or do-
ing calisthenics.
"Then there were the Puerto
Rican cons, all from New York
City, trigger-tempered, gather-
ing around the Yound L o r d s
members sometimes confined
there. They had been transfer-
red from Sing Sing and were
angry at the tougher condi-
tions.
"And the Black Panthers,
suspicious, slipping into glower-
ing silence whenever a w h it e
prisoner approached, k e e p ing
their own counsel."

together to draw up a petition
to Corrections Commissioner
Russell Oswald. It was a milder
version of the demands later
made during the four-day rebel-
lion.
But the July petition was never
acknowledged by the prison
authorities.
The activist prisoners eventu-
ally got together again to spring
the rebellion, but most observers
doubt that it was very carefully
planned.
"A prisoner told me that they
daren't have planned it. A dog
informant would have turned
them in," said radio reporter
Myron Yancey, invited into the
prison by inmates.
During the first day of nego-
tiations, as the prisoners held
the hostages, officials felt the
prisoner ranks were confused
and divided. But strong leader-
ship soon took over.
The Guards
The white prison guards watch-
ed the political activism with
growing resentment. The inflam-
atory nature of some of the
yard speeches infuriated the
older, conservative g u a r d s.
"Some of those guy were
preaching the overthrow of the
whole prison system," one guard
angrily told reporters.
Some younger guards were less
combative with the prisoners'
Smith recalled, rattling less on
walls and cell doors with their
nightsticks, more reluctant to
prod prisoners. They tried to
have more rapport with the city
blacks and Puerto Ricans.
Some black guards had been
employed at Attica in previous
years but two sent up there ear-
lier this year reportedly could
not find adequate housing in
Attica.
The Reforms
The rebellion stunned Commis-
sioner Oswald, who six days
earlier had announced a broad
program of reforms. It included
120 days of training fpr new
guards. Previously guards had
no training.
Other reforms included week-
end furloughs for inmates who
"earned them" and a program
allowing inmates to hold day
jobs outside the walls.
The guards bitterly resented
the measures which they saw
as helping prisoners at their
expense.
"BysGod, they were making
just baby sitters of us," com-
mented an older guard after the
rebellion was put down. "We
had fewer and fewer powers to
take action, we could hardly get
disciplinary action when we
wrote up an infraction.
"We were 1 o s i n g control.
That's why the prisoners, jumped
us. Oswald is mad," he declared.
Some guards got sonervous
amongst the prisoners that they
volunteered for duty on the wall,
jobs usually reserved for guards
who had infringed the rules.
Despite Oswald's planned re-
forms, there were sitdown strikes
within the prison, increasing
complaints. Little is known of
the inmates' attitude in the iast
days prior to the rebellion, but
they were angry in their oppo-
- s

State Police converge on Attica

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ATTICA WOMAN anxiously
awaits news -of hostages.
The 44-year-old Smith. an in-
structor in the print shop,
watched as political factions
would form, and allegiances
were made and broken.
'From the day I walked in
early in 1970 I could feel the
political hypertension," he said.
Panthers would steal fr o m
Black Muslim members, t h e
Puerto Ricans fought amongst
themselves. The whites gener-
ally were loners, Smith said, ex-
cept some of the younger radi-
cals "who tried to keep on good
terms with the Panthers and the
Muslims."
By early summer this year
poorly printed posters were ap-
pearing in the corridors, read-
ing "Black Brothers Unite," or
"Let's Liberate Attica Concen-
tration Camp."
By July militant prisoners got
JOIN THE REVOLUTION!
Lindsay Anderson's
if....
Tues., Sept. 21-
7 & 9:30 p.m.
auditorium a-angell hall
ann arbor film cooperative

sition to the prison superintend-
ent, Vincent. Mancusi, who came
up from the ranks to take the
Attica job in 1965. Many inmates
apparently felt Mancusi was in-
different to them and their
grievances.
The removal of Mancusi was
one of the two rebel demands
that Oswald refused to yield to.
The other was amnesty for acts
during the rebellion.
Other issues brought up by
inmates in recent months and
at the rebellion bargaining ses-
sions included charges of indif-
ference to health matters. A
young blond man who had front
teeth missing told reporters in-
vited into the prison the second
day of the insurrection that the
dentist had wanted to pull out
his tooth without an anesthetic.
"I wouldn't do it, so it rotted out
and my mouth was full of pus."
Black inmates told reporters
that white men were favored
and got better jobs in the shops,
and that guards verbally insulted
them, one telling a prisoner,
"you should be in the Congolese
army."
An important issue to the pris-
oners was wages. "I wasepaid
15 cents a day when I entered
Attica," said former prisoner
Smith. "After s o m e sitdown
strikes they raised it to 80 cents
per day."
Censorship was another issue
raised by inmates during the
arguments t h r o u g h the long
weekend before Sept. 13. "They
destroyed my law books because
I tried to help other inmates,"
commented a black lifer. For-
mer prisoner Smith said news-
papers had clippings relating to
Attica, other institutions and
"dangerous political articles"
clipped out.
The prisoners also charged of-
ficial indifference to rehabilita-
tion programs. An ex-addict said,
"We need professional people
who can relate to addicts. They
only have two limited meeting
The Michigan Daily, edited and man-
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Michigan. News phone: 764-0552. Second
Class postage paid at Ann Arbor, Mich-
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through Saturday morning. Subscrip-
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groups; the therapy class meets
once a month."
The Attica Village Community
The seething, tense life inside
the reinforced walls of the max-
imum security prison, with its
maze of doors and bars and
locks, and sullen streams of
prisoners, is in total contrast to
the scenes outside where the
citizens of Attica live.
Cows graze in the bucolic clear-
ings dotting the rolling hillsides
west of town. The view is free
of smog. There is no noise be-
cause the freeways and the air-
ports are far away.
Even the prison seems to fit
into the scene. With its turrets
and prow-like front wall it looks
like a modest Eastern equiva-
lent of Disneyland, or an amuse-
ment park for the kids.
The alarm bells at breakfast
time Thursday, September 9,
jangled away all such fantasies.
The prison rebellion had begun.
Husbands and fathers were in-:
side. Smoke began drifting into

. l.}P

There seemed little doubt that
by late Sunday night the citizens
of Attica wanted a forceful con-
clusion to the rebellion. Gov.
Nelson Rockefeller's continued
refusal- to visit the prison de-
spite the pleas of the observers
fed' rumors that the denoument
was near.
The rumors for once were
right. They came true with whir-
ring helicopters spewing riot gas
a few minutes before 9 a.m.
Monday. Then came the shots
and the cries. The wail of the
ambulance sirens rent the air.
Perspiring state t r o o.p e r s
brought out the first reports that
the rebels had carried out
threats to slit the throats of the
hostages. One police sergeant
vividly described to a reporter
how he had personally witnessed
convicts slitting the throats of
seven guard hostages. A police
sniper bullet allegedly saved the
life of an eighth about to have
his throat slashed.
The horror reports were back-

"By early summer

poorly printed posters

were appearing in the corridors, reading 'Black
Brothers .united,' or 'Let's Liberate Attica Con-
centration Camp'. ..

the sky as the convicts put the
torch to the chapel and other
buildings.
Tension was high, and it rose
further with the death Satur-
day from injuries suffered the
first day of guard William Quinn,
28.
By Sunday, after the visit of
Black Panther Bobby Seale and
his followers, and the continued
presence of scores of newsmen,
some of them black, anger rose
amongst the townspeople. Citi-
zen intermediaries brought in as
observers to assist in the negotia-
tions were sometimes greeted
with angry cries as they discuss-
ed the situation with reporters.
The tension among Attica citi-
zens seemed to be feeding on
rumors from within the prison.
Some hostages had been killed
and buried, was one rumor. The
menacing nature of the rebel
guards inside, draped in Arab-
type headdresses, and some in
masks, and armed with sticks
and spears, raised the tension.

ed up all day by guards and
prison officials. The people of
Attica were coldly furious. A
woman in the Tipperay Restaur-
ant sipped her beer and said,
"I guess this was not a racist
town before, but it is now."
It was not until early the next
day that the picture of wanton
rebel murder began to change
for Attica and the world.. Freed
hostages began telling how pri-
soners had fallen across them
to protect them from assaults by
other inmates, and of many
kindnesses during captivity.
And then came the shattering
news from the Monroe County
Medical Examiner, Dr. John Ed-
land, that the bodies of the eight
hostages he examined showed
no evidence of slashed throats.
They had all been shot, and it
was common knowledge that the
prisoners had no guns.
A second medical check later
in the week confirmed that all
See ATTICA, Page 8

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TODAY
ONLY!

SUNDAY

at 1:00, 3:30,6:00,8:30, & 11:00
Aud. B, Angell Hall

MONDAY NIGHT
Aud. A at 7-9-11

"The Lion in Winter" is about love and hate between a man and a woman
and their sons. It's also about politics, vengeance, greed and ambition.
In other words it's about life.

WINNER!
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AWARDS
INCLUDING
BEST
ACTRESS
KATHARINE
HEPBURN

WINNER
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AWARDS!
BEST SONG


124 S. University
DIAL 8-6416
FRANCOIS TRUFFAUT
FESTIVAL
"'STOLEN KISSES' is easily
Truffaut's best and further evi-
dence that he may be the finest
comic artist now working in the
movies."-Life Mag.
Academy Award
Winner


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"STOLEN KISSES"
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