Word: atticas
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...Governor Rockefeller should have gone to Attica. The gesture might or might not have made a difference, the commission said, but "where state neglect was a major contributing factor to the uprising," the report said, "the Governor should not have committed the state's armed forces without first appearing on the scene and satisfying himself that there was no other alternative...
Another account of Attica has been written by Richard Clark, an inmate leader during the rebellion. It provides explicit reportage of what happened inside convict-held territory and describes the convicts' executions of three fellow prisoners. Whether the manuscript will ever be published is problematical. Random House dropped the book after receiving threats of libel suits from prisoners' lawyers as well as warnings that the book would almost certainly be used in any state prosecution of rioters...
...McKay commission agreed that conditions at Attica have improved some-a view not shared by current inmates. But it saw urgent need for greater "freedom for inmates to conduct their own affairs," more community contact so that convict life is not "shrouded from public view," improved status and standards for guards, and less arbitrary parole procedures. The report is pessimistic about long-range reform. "The cycle of misunderstanding, protests and reaction continues," the commissioners said, "and confrontation remains the only language in which inmates feel they can call attention to the system. The possibility that the Attica townspeople will again...
...surface, Attica has changed. A new superintendent, Ernest L. Montanye, a beefy former guard, is trying to make the prison an easier place to do time. The screens in the visiting room are gone, and visitors now include friends and common-law wives. Prison officials still read inmates' mail, but they have relaxed the censorship of newspapers and magazines. Other improvements include an inmate-administration "liaison" committee, a second shower a week, soft drinks and health foods in the commissary, an orientation course for new prisoners, the hiring of 21 black and Spanish-speaking guards (total number...
...Attica remains troubled. In the end, the most important aspect of any prison is the relationships between the keepers and the kept. "It's hard doing time here," says Inmate Robert Johnson, 34. "It's the officers' attitude. Hold it up. Slow it down. Constant bickering." Some guards still call black inmates "nigger," and the doctor is accused of mixing arbitrary racial attitudes with his medicine. The food is still bad. At lunch the liver was leathery and the mashed potatoes cold and lumpy. Everyone at the table insisted that conditions are worse now than a year...