Attica State Prison Uprising September 13, 1971 Essay

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. one of many great influential speakers wrote a life changing letter after being arrested for peacefully protesting African American rights. While sitting in jail Dr. King received a letter from clergymen questioning his motives and timings for being in Birmingham. In a response Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. writes a “Letter from Birmingham Jail” vividly expressing physical and emotional purposes for his presence in Birmingham, AL.

Negotiations between inmates and authorities stalled but, eventually the inmates come up with 11 demands which included basic prison conditions like overcrowding, inmate discipline, educational services and improving food. The prisoners also demanded to talk to independent federal officials and members of the news media. In exchange they released the 12 officers held hostage. Some officers were badly beaten and raped but, others were protected by other

But, in seeking this goal, they sacrificed the prisoners’ liberty within the prison to the extent they went insane. Solitary confinement and beatings are two examples of the terrible conditions. The search for finding a way cure deranged men led to unjust treatment against democratic ideals even though the reformers were trying to improve their lives.

After being arrested and imprisoned in Birmingham Jail, Martin Luther King Jr. wrote one of his most famous works to the people of Birmingham, titled “Letter From Birmingham Jail on April 16, 1963. This piece speaks of the evils of the segregation laws and how the blacks had been treated unfairly in Birmingham, in an attempt to get the white people to support the desegregation of Birmingham. He had been imprisoned because of his participation in a civil disobedience protest, and he is arguing that, even though the white people of Birmingham see the black’s way of protesting as wrong, it is a justified way to fight back against the unjust laws. In “Letter From Birmingham

Most of his time at Sing Sing was consumed being in close contact with the inmates, in dining halls and housing galleries, doing strip searches, searching cells, writing disciplinary infraction reports, and confiscating inmate contraband. In addition, because they live in an enforced state of near powerlessness, answering to inmates who required support with a seemingly endless range of personal complications occupied much of Conover’s time. Conover’s account of the correctional officer’s role is consistent with those opinions offered by others who have firsthand experience of prison life. Virtually all serious, firsthand interpretations of correctional work define a gap between the training and the realism of the job, official policies and procedures that require routine avoidance, poor associations between line officers and administrators, and the undermining power of stress on professional conduct and personal life.

7) In criminological theories, we saw how police activity is largely geared towards minor visible crimes committed by individuals from the lower stratums of society as oppose to “white collar crimes” committed by those of higher stratums (Dubé, CRM 3701, 2011). Abolitionists argue that by severely punishing some of the poor in order to deter society from committing crimes; we are only further contributing to the inequalities in today’s society.

After reading the book I have gained a new understanding of what inmates think about in prison. Working in an institution, I have a certain cynical attitude at times with inmates and their requests.

In the case of the California’s Corcoran State Prison the prisoners were being mistreated. The situation that brought this case to the forefront was Dryburgh (2009) found that “Preston Tate was shot and fatally wounded by a corrections officer after Tate and his cellmate fought against two rival Hispanic gang member. Tate death was at the hands of a prison guard prompted two whistle – blowers to approach the FBI with tales of abuse and brutality toward inmates by correction officers”. Moreover, this was not the first time that an inmate had been shot by a correctional officer.

In the mid-1960s, Newton attended Merritt College, where he met Bobby Seale. The two radical thinkers were ready to spread their message with a show of force. They began by making national news through protesting a gun bill on April 25th, 1967 by entering the California Legislature fully armed. Newton emerged as a leading figure in the black militant movement and The Panthers were instantly notorious. By the end of 1968 seventeen Panther chapters had opened across the country and thousands of members joined (Wasserman, Steve). Later that year Newton was arrested for allegedly killing an Oakland police officer, he was convicted of voluntary manslaughter and sentenced to two to 15 years in prison. Growing support from across the nation of Black Panthers sparked a “Free Huey” movement which helped Newton’s cause. The case was eventually dismissed after two retrials ended with a hung jury. Newton was greeted by thousands who came to show support outside of the prison.

Prior to the uprising, Attica’s inmates developed a reform movement against abuse and poor conditions at the prison. Thompson asserts that the prisoners’ effort led to a more antagonistic relationship between prisoners and prison officials; a relationship which likely influenced the forced removal of Leroy Dewer and Roy Lamorie by correctional officers¬–the event which triggered the Attica uprising. Therefore, considering how political radicalization affected this initial movement is instructive in determining how the uprising and its result were generally influenced by radicalization. Two factors imply that the reform movement was hardly moved by radical sentiments: First, the reform movement was composed of prisoners spanning “ethnic, racial,

Throughout history, people have been incarcerated and imprisoned for voicing their beliefs. Can those who are confined to a prison cell now be associated with those who faced similar treatment on Alcatraz Island? I feel that while some problems go away and new ones arise, there are always going to be social issues and there are people affected by the issues who want to be heard and acknowledged. Philip Grosser and DeRay Mckesson are two activists who were arrested, but for different issues that happened during different times.

By what i researched and what i saw on the internet i understood that the attica prison was a big riot that was

During the day of being a convict, they would be supervised by a military guard or another convict who was given the task where they would discipling other fellow convicts.

Some representatives of the mob were allowed to be let into the prison; the plan was to diminish some of their anger and waste time while the

The structure of the panopticon prison is quite simply just a circular building, with a tower in the center of it. This tower is full of wide windows that open onto the inside of the building. The circular building is then divided into cells. These cells each have two wide windows; one on the inside, facing the tower, and the other on the outside, facing the outdoors. This allows the light to cross the cell from one end to the other. You then are able to place a supervisor in the central tower. In regards to the central tower, Bentham envisioned venetian blinds to be put on the windows, this will allow the person on the inside to be able to look out, but no way for the prisoners in the cells, to be able to look in. Thus allowing the person on the inside to not be seen. In addition to the blinds, he also envisaged