Analysis Of The Attica Prison Riot

The Attica prison riot took place in a time period of the United States that welcomed progressive attitudes and supported increasing the rights of minority groups. Throughout the 1960s, America witnessed African Americans battle the government for equality through the Civil Rights Movement while also witnessing the organization of welfare groups, students, and people protesting the government’s decisions, such as the Vietnam War. Russell Oswald (1972, 32), the Commissioner of Correctional Services at Attica, states in his book that “prisons are like a microcosm of society,” and the rebellious attitude of prisoners at the Attica Correctional Facility coincided with the popular beliefs of the activists throughout the nation. Prior to the riot, prisoners at Attica were fighting for better living conditions, more humane treatment, and an end to racial …show more content…
Although the riot’s end was devastating and should have initiated insurmountable progress within prisons, the prison reforms that followed were little to none. Alice Speri (2016, par. 1 and 9) writes in her article that Attica “remains a prison rife with abuse rather than a monument to a massacre,” and prisoners today are still struggling in the fight against “prison labor and inhumane prison condition.” These demands for reform are nearly identical to those of the Attica prison riot 45 years ago. Today there are still issues regarding the need for factual information about problems in prisons and increased media coverage of prison conditions, and Speri (2016, par. 16) claims prisons today are “much worse” than at the time of the riot at Attica. Although little reform came out of Attica prison riot, it gave the public a sense of the lengthy list of problems occurring in the prisons of the past and of today. It brought awareness to prison reform, and the lessons learned from Attica should inspire hope for more substantial prison reform in the