PRISONS: Uprising in Attica

Once a staple scene in Warner Brothers B films, the prison riot has become an ugly constant of American life. As time passes, the revolts of angry convicts get better organized, more political and harder to bring under control. Last week, at the turreted Attica Correctional Facility in upstate New York, 1,200 of the 2,250 inmates, most of them blacks, seized control of one cell block and parts of two others. They grabbed more than 30 guards as hostages, then locked the gates shut against a gathering force of more than 1,000 heavily armed police, state troopers and National Guardsmen. Rejecting surrender demands from prison officials, the convicts shouted instructions back from the captured central watchtower through makeshift megaphones. They demanded, and were allowed, outside lawyers and observers of their own choice to help them bargain with state authorities.

The tense deadlock continued for three days and into the weekend. While the impasse lasted, reported TIME Correspondent James Willwerth, the 55-acre prison compound in the lush and rolling countryside near Buffalo looked like the playground for some fantasy war game.

Tear-gas-carrying helicopters at times hovered over the prison yards. Officers with high-powered rifles pointed their weapons from atop the 30-ft. walls. Behind police barriers, local youths guzzled beer and wisecracked about the jailhouse drama. Later, both black and white groups of radicals converged on Attica, demonstrating on behalf of the prisoners. Inside cell block D, inmates armed with baseball bats, claw hammers, clubs and tear-gas canisters kept close guard over their hostages. In the prison yard, with the cool intensity of guerrillas, leaders of the rebellion put forward demands as inmate typists recorded the dialogue between the negotiators.

Dinnertime Incident. No one was certain precisely what had triggered the uprising, which appeared to be spontaneous rather than long-planned. The inmates themselves discounted the importance of a dinnertime incident one evening last week in which two prisoners hurled glass shards at a guard; the offenders were thrown into solitary confinement and, they claimed, beaten. Next morning after breakfast, one group of inmates refused to line up for a work detail, and the riot was on. In a short time, windows in nearly every cell block were smashed, bedding and furniture were set afire, and three buildings were burned out. Guards were quickly captured. Some of the hostages were beaten, and the rebels eventually released those needing medical attention. Guard William Quinn, 28, who apparently was thrown out a window, died of head injuries two days later. After the initial violence, the prisoners treated their hostages with care, giving them blankets, food and clothing.