Advocates for prison reform commemorated the Sunday, September 13 anniversary of the Attica prison uprising with protests in New York City and Albany, calling for improved treatment of incarcerated people.

Forty-nine years ago, inmates at Attica Correctional Facility in New York, who described the conditions of their confinement as little short of torture, led an uprising and took control of the prison for five days. In the violence as the prisoners established control, and then as the state re-established its control, 10 prison guards, a state trooper and 33 inmates died. The dramatic story captured national attention: allegations of the mistreatment of prisoners preceding the uprising and of brutal, indiscriminate vengeance against prisoners once the state had re-established control stood out in the national conversation about prison reform.

At the protests, formerly incarcerated persons (including some who had survived the violence at Attica), family members of currently incarcerated people, and concerned community members advocated for a broad range of changes to New York’s prison practices.

One demand was for support of the Humane Alternatives to Long-Term (HALT) Solitary Confinement Act in the state legislature. The Act would “provide for mental health screening and a heightened level of care for prisoners placed into segregated confinement” and “prohibit placement of any inmate and segregated confinement for more than 15 consecutive days or 20 out of 60 days unless specific acts are committed while in such confinement,” among other reforms to solitary confinement practices. The justification section of the Act points out that “on any given day, there are nearly 3,000 people, disproportionately people of color, in state prisons in Special Housing Units (SHU) and thousands more in other forms of isolation.”

Protesters also advocated for measures to expand parole opportunities for the elderly and to protect transgender individuals.

The protests took place against the backdrop not only of the Attica anniversary but also of the COVID-19 pandemic. In the last few months, legal aid organizations have pushed for action in light of the danger of the spread of COVID-19 in jail settings. In May the New York Civil Liberties Union sued the New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision to obtain the release of medically vulnerable inmates.

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has been a partial ally to critics of the state’s criminal punishment system, closing several small and mid-sized correctional facilities during his tenure. New York Mayor Bill de Blasio has also expressed some sympathy with the protesters’ demands, including specifically acknowledging the need to end solitary confinement. Advocacy groups behind the protest, such as the New York Campaign for Alternatives to Isolated Confinement, are pressing the mayor and other leaders to eschew
“delay tactics” and take immediate steps to improve prison conditions.