Marvin J. Chomsky Attica Citation

The film Attica, directed by Marvin J. Chomsky in 1980, covers the riot caused by inmates at the Attica Correctional Facility in Attica, NY. The riot lasted four days and was due to poor treatment of the prisoners by guards. While watching the documentary, it seemed that the whole thing could have been prevented in multiple ways. It may have never happened if the prisoners were treated adequately in the first place, it may have been stopped peacefully if the inmates would have come to an agreement with the negotiations, and finally, there could have been less death if the observers would have warned the inmates about the impending shooting.
In September of 1971, the inmates of the facility were fed up with the ways they were being treated, …show more content…
When a head inmate took it upon himself to talk to the superintendent about the lack of rights they had, he was told that most of their requests were reasonable. However, the inmates in the yard were told that the outsiders will only work on it, but there was no change. A week later, tensions were rising, and the inmates were able to beat up a guard and secure D block. While securing the block, the inmates took hostages that consisted of guards. They were rioting in hopes that their demands of better living standards would be met. They had leaders who would talk to the observers, and everyone else would listen. When the observers went into the yard, I was expecting the inmates to threaten them, but instead, they discussed their demands peacefully. The main demand from the prisoners was amnesty, but the observers knew that would be difficult, if not impossible, to secure. Morgan Freeman’s character, Hap Richards, was the calmest inmate. He talked to one of the observers and said the inmates all had an “uneasy coalition,” due to them all wanting different things, but agreed on amnesty. Hap then went on to describe how he was serving a sentence for five years, but the …show more content…
Instead of being so easy to anger and stubborn, they should have considered all their options. They were faced with the option of some of their conditions being met, or risk the chance of being shot. It is understandable that many were afraid to go back to prison after rioting, due to the possibility of being beaten by guards or having their sentence increased. However, when faced with the latter risk, they should have picked the first option. After being in that type of situation, where all repercussions would be negative, I still would have picked the lesser of the evils. Unfortunately, though, all the moving pieces of the Attica riot proved to be too much. Regardless of the choices possible, it probably would have ended badly in some