Last week I went to a discussion that was focused on the Attica prison riot in 1971. Prior to this event I have never heard of the Attica prison riot. I never knew that there was a prison named Attica to begin with. Throughout Heather Thompson’s presentation she discussed the reasons that Attica started such as unsafe and dismal living conditions. The prisoners were being forced to share everything in tight areas, without proper space. They were given food and necessities that were horribly under the quality that a human should have, just because they were prisoners. It was incredible to hear how many people didn’t care about prisoner’s rights at this point, and how they did not care if they lived in these conditions. Due to these conditions, many prisoners began to join together and stick up to those in charge and demand better conditions. They started an uprising, with the help of the prison staff, in order to get attention for their cause. They called in news sources to show that they were simply holding a peaceful protest in order to increase the wellbeing of their life. The governor of New York was not happy with this and pretended to agree to their demands, but later sent in a large group of police and soldiers to take over the prison. These men killed both prisoners and prison workers without differentiating between the two. Later, all the deaths were blamed on the prisoners.

This talk was very upsetting but very necessary. I was extremely unaware of  prison rights and the mistreatment felt by prisoners. No one deserves to live in horrible conditions, even if these people committed a crime. A high number of individuals are sent to prison for nonviolent crimes and do not deserve to be treated subhuman. We must help make prisons more transparent so something like this never happens again. We must allocate resources toward rehabilitation in order to ensure that these men and women do not become a part of the system of release and recapture.