Storming the Gates: Fifty Years After the Attica Prison Uprising
Fifty years ago this week, September 9-13, 1971, incarcerated men at the Attica Correctional Facility in upstate New York took control of the state prison to demand humane treatment and better living. The revolt captured the nation’s attention, with journalists, historians and political analysts calling it a pivotal moment in the national prisoners’ rights movement.
Now, after the murder of George Floyd inspired renewed protests across the country demanding accountability around law enforcement, corrections and criminal justice, the WNYC Race and Justice Unit sought to reexamine the 50th anniversary of the Attica uprising, what has changed in New York State’s prison system to improve the quality of life for inmates, and what remains unaddressed half a century later.
The village of Attica will forever be linked with the disastrous prison uprising and subsequent massacre that happened there 50 years ago this month.
But the bucolic town 35 miles outside Buffalo, which boasts on its official website its small town values and “wholesome lifestyle,” doesn’t share the negative association that many New Yorkers have with Attica Correctional Facility, the towering prison with decorative turrets that employs hundreds of nearby residents. They remain staunchly protective over both the necessity of the prison and the economic opportunities it provides.
“We’re known for the prison, simple as that,” said Bob Caplick, the owner and manager of Attica Vapor, a music store on Main Street that doubles as a vape and CBD outlet. “It employs a lot of people and we’re happy to have it.”
Other residents remember even fanciful associations with the prison.
“I thought it was Cinderella’s castle,” said Maryann Reisdorf, a lifelong resident, of how she viewed the prison when she was a child. “I loved it, it was the prettiest building I ever saw.”
Attica, New York
Attica’s relationship with the prison began in the late 1920s, as New York began to expand the capacity of its corrections system and local residents lobbied the state to become the beneficiaries.
By March 1929, the state acquired about 700 acres of land south of the village for the site. Two years later, the prison opened. And while farming and agriculture remain key contributors to the local economy, the facility has become the backbone of the community — incarcerating 1,840 men and employing 800 people, according to a 2020 New York state audit. About 7,000 people live in the town.
“You know at one point this little town of Attica had around 16 bars back when the correctional officers had to live around the prison,” said Laurie Waite, a waiter at the Twilight Meadows diner who moved to Attica eight years ago, shortly after restrictions loosened on where guards could live. “When the state changed that rule, people started going to the cities, and now it’s down to three bars.”
Sherry Garigen, now retired, was 22 when the prison uprising began on September 9, 1971. Eventually, more than 1,000 inmates would detain 40 prison guards and staffers inside a section of the facility.
The Twilight Meadows diner in Attica
Garigen remembers being home alone when news broke that the prisoners had taken over the prison. She turned on all the lights in her house. Then, when she heard someone at the door, she grabbed her gun.
“My father comes home and says ‘what's going on?’ because I met him at the door with the 22,” Garigen said. “I told him, and he went and got his shotgun out and he took it to his bedroom.”
“And then he said to me, ‘Would you shoot?’ And I said, ‘I wouldn’t know until it happened.’”
The uprising spanned five days. Prisoners issued a list of demands for reform, including an end to violence from prison guards, legal representation at parole hearings, religious freedom and higher wages for prison labor.
By the week’s end, state troopers and the national guard stormed the maximum-security facility, killing inmates and guards. A state commission later called it “the bloodiest one-day encounter between Americans since the Civil War.” A total of 43 people died over the five-day prison siege, 32 of them inmates and 11 guards.
“It was very scary, several of my friends, their fathers and uncles were killed,” said Barbara Higgins, another local resident. “The village was locked down. You couldn’t get in or go out.”
In the aftermath, Governor Nelson Rockefeller blamed the prisoners for the deaths of the staff. But some of Attica’s residents who lived through the assault remained clear-eyed about what really happened that day.
Inside the Attica Prison Preservation Foundation, across from the prison
“[They died] at the hands of the state,” Reisdorf said. “The inmates didn’t have guns.”
An investigation and U.S. Congressional report would later find that a vast majority of the deaths were the responsibility of law enforcement officers who threw tear gas into the prison and indiscriminately fired shotguns into the smoke.
Despite widespread calls for criminal justice reform and decarceration since the murder of George Floyd last year, Higgins believes inmates have more support on the inside than out in society.
“You have to understand that in prison these days, you’re going to be able to get a free education, free cable and free medical,” Higgins said. “I mean, go to prison and get a free education, get out and get a job.”
