Word: oswald
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State Corrections Commissioner Russell G. Oswald, a chunky, earnest man who, before moving to New York as a top parole officer, had won high praise from penologists for modernizing Wisconsin's prisons, rushed to Attica from his Albany office. He arrived...
...fatigue and delay often break down the prisoners' cohesion and will to resist. A prolonged stalemate endured in a wet, garbage-strewn yard and with inadequate food and water might have discouraged the rebels and convinced them that they must accept the Oswald concessions or seek some other face-saving...
Many of the demands that emerged in the Attica rebellion were first raised in July in a tough "manifesto" sent to Oswald and Rockefeller by a group of inmates called "the Attica Liberation Faction." The paper labeled Attica a "classic institution of authoritative inhumanity upon men," but added: "We are trying to do this in a democratic fashion. We feel there is no need to dramatize our demands...
...Oswald decided to talk to the prisoners in person. Although that tactic was later to be criticized, his personal courage could not be. While police sharpshooters kept watch from prison walls, Oswald and Herman Schwartz, a reform-minded attorney trusted by the convict leaders, walked into the midst of the rebels. The prisoners had created an extremely efficient paramilitary organization. The leaders had commandeered a megaphone, and they dictated a list of demands, which had been neatly typed by inmates seated at a long bench. The hostages were encircled and carefully guarded?both against escape and from any harm...
Initially, Oswald intended to discuss the men's grievances only after the hostages were released?a cardinal rule of most prison officials. He did demand their release, but he also listened to the inmate ultimatum and found it unalarming. The prisoners wanted "religious freedom" (for Black Muslim worship), permission for political meetings "without intimidation," the end of mail censorship, the right to communicate with anyone they wished and regular grievance procedures. Only one demand, added to the list later, sounded bizarre: "Speedy and safe transportation out of confinement to a nonimperialist country...