A march to Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s office demanding the closing of the Attica Correctional Facility will take place soon to deliver copies of the following letter to him, signed both online and at the event.
Dear Gov. Cuomo,
We are asking today that you take a principled stance against one of our country’s most enduring symbols of brutality and racism by closing Attica. Closing Attica would not resolve larger systemic problems, but it would be the first step on the part of New York State to address the widespread violations of basic human rights that exist throughout the prison system.
In September of 1971, residents in New York State’s Attica Correctional Facility staged a four-day protest against the inhumane conditions they were forced to endure. They were demanding that their basic civil and human rights be respected. The protest ended in a siege that left some 39 people dead, including 10 guards, because Nelson Rockefeller, New York’s state’s governor at the time, refused to negotiate with the residents about their more than legitimate demands and, instead, sent in the National Guard to end the uprising. Today, conditions remain largely the same throughout the prison system. While other prisons, both in New York State and throughout the U.S., are also very brutal, Attica, because of its legendary 1971 uprising and massacre, is a symbol in this country and around the world of a horrific, brutal, racist system and a nation characterized by mass incarceration.
Four decades after the uprising, Attica does not only stand as a symbol for a legacy of racism and a culture of brutality, but many of the actual conditions remain as they were in 1971. Gov. Cuomo, you stated that prisons should not be used as a “jobs program.” We request, simply, that you reject the culture of brutality and racism that the prison system is currently built on and close Attica.
You have closed some prisons, but these closures did not include any maximum security prisons, where much of the worst brutality occurs. Attica is both an example and a major site of the abusive conditions that prevail in New York’s maximum security prisons. If we are committed to humanity, respecting the lives of those lost in 1971, and the many brutalized today, we must close Attica.
The organizations sponsoring the Sept. 14 event are: International Concerned Family and Friends of Mumia Abu-Jamal, Riverside Church Mission and Social Justice, Riverside Church Prison Ministry, Correctional Association of New York, New York State Prisoner Justice Network and the Campaign to End the New Jim Crow.
