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Attica Prison Riot: Rights and Consequences

The document summarizes a student project about the 1971 Attica Prison Riot. The students chose this topic because of its connection to the theme of rights and responsibilities. They conducted research including interviewing a former warden and hostage of the Attica riot. The students decided to create a website for their project because it allowed them to include audio and video elements and was simpler than alternatives like a display board. The riot resulted from prisoners revolting over the denial and ignoring of their rights by the prison and state government, who failed in their responsibility to resolve issues peacefully.

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4 views2 pages

Attica Prison Riot: Rights and Consequences

The document summarizes a student project about the 1971 Attica Prison Riot. The students chose this topic because of its connection to the theme of rights and responsibilities. They conducted research including interviewing a former warden and hostage of the Attica riot. The students decided to create a website for their project because it allowed them to include audio and video elements and was simpler than alternatives like a display board. The riot resulted from prisoners revolting over the denial and ignoring of their rights by the prison and state government, who failed in their responsibility to resolve issues peacefully.

Uploaded by

historyfair1
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

The 1971 Attica Prison Riot: Loss of Rights Loss of Life

Rachael Holappa and Sarah Passaretti Senior Division 2013 Website

Our passion for treating people properly no matter the circumstance coupled with this years theme of Rights and Responsibilities led us to choose The 1971 Attica Prison Riot Loss of Rights Loss of Life as our project. Although the culture of that era led to the mistreatment of minorities, it was still wrong and the events that took place at Attica Penitentiary have had an impact on how prisoners rights are handled today. After settling on a topic we started to conduct our research. We went to the Hamilton Wenham Public Library and found a few books on Attica but we hoped for more. Failing that, we then took a day trip to the Boston Public library where we found many sources both primary and secondary that helped us with our topic. One valuable primary source was Tom Wickers A Time To Die. The book was very helpful regarding events during the riot and during the negotiations as he was involved in both. We were also able to use the interview between Governor Rockefeller and a legal strategist, which Wicker included in his book to help us with the idea of responsibility of the State of New York. Next, we interviewed the recently retired warden of Attica State Penitentiary, Jim Conway, whose father and uncle were both guards during the riot. He provided information on how Attica functioned and on his fathers and uncles experiences as guards at Attica. He gave us insight on the viewpoint of someone other than a prisoner, which balanced our site. After being informed that we were moving on to the next level of competition we were able to interview John Stockholm, a hostage during the Attica Riot. He shared his experiences as a hostage and how the prisoners treated him. He also spoke of how the riot not only affected the people directly involved but also their families. Choosing the presentation category was the easiest part of the project. We wanted to work in a group and neither of us wanted to act. This quickly eliminated the research paper and performance as potential mediums. Furthermore, we knew we werent that good at technology and thus a documentary would have been a struggle for us. That left a display or a website. We decided that instead of purchasing a board and all the materials necessary, we would try to make a website since we found that Weebly was simple to use even if you are not tech savvy. We also liked the idea of adding audio and video to our project, which would not be possible on a board. The theme this year is Rights and Responsibilities. The rights of the prisoners were denied and ignored causing the prisoners to revolt for change which the state government, and prison itself, failed in their responsibility to end peacefully. Although the inmates are in prison, they still have rights that the state did not uphold and ignored when grievances were brought to their attention.

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