On September 13, 1971, at 9:46 in the morning, state police moved into Attica Correctional Facility in western New York to end an uprising that had begun on September 9 and left about 1,300 prisoners holding part of the prison and 39 hostages. Helicopters dropped tear gas, and then troopers went in with shotguns and rifles. When it was over, 39 people were dead: 29 prisoners and 10 hostages.
Every one of them was killed by gunfire from law enforcement. That was the conclusion of the McKay Commission, the state's own investigation, published in 1972, and it is the finding that has defined the event ever since. Nine of the ten hostages died in the assault. Their families were told at first that prisoners had cut their throats. It was not true. The claim was retracted. Three prisoners had been killed by other prisoners during the first days of the uprising.
The prisoners had taken over D yard after a disturbance spread, and their immediate grievance was conditions: one shower a week, limited toilet paper, mail censorship, twelve-cent-an-hour wages, and a population that was more than half Black or Puerto Rican with a guard force that was almost entirely white and rural. They drew up a list of demands and called in outside observers, including Tom Wicker of the New York Times and members of a citizens' committee, who were inside negotiating when the assault began.
Governor Nelson Rockefeller did not go to the prison. He had been told the hostages were at immediate risk, and he authorized the assault by telephone, then defended it for the rest of his career and refused for years to release the tape recordings made by corrections officers during the retaking.
The aftermath was long. New York indicted 62 prisoners and then, under pressure, granted a form of amnesty; it charged no state official for years and then brought charges against a single trooper, who was acquitted. Prisoners were beaten and abused after the surrender, and photographs of it were published. The state paid more than 12 million dollars in settlements to the hostage families and did not settle with the prisoners until 2000, for 8 million, after 29 years of litigation.
Attica is the point of reference for American prison policy and prison conditions, and the phrase is still used. The 1971 uprising also produced the prisoners' rights litigation of the 1970s that brought the worst of the country's prisons under court supervision.