ACS gas system (chlorobenzylidine malononitrile) installed in the mess hall and industry areas has been used to quell conflicts in these areas. The prison now holds numerous inmates who are serving various types of sentences (short-term to life). They are often sent to this facility because of disciplinary problems in other facilities.[5] The prison is amaximum security facility.[6]
Attica was the site of aprison uprising in September 1971 in which inmates took control of the prison for several days. They were seeking to negotiate to improve conditions and treatment at the overcrowded prison. The uprising and subsequent retaking of the prison by the state resulted in 43 deaths and over 89 injuries. Police killed 39 people, ten of which included correctional officers and civilian employees who had been taken hostage.[7] Three prisoners were killed by other inmates and one guard died later from injuries sustained during the initial uprising.[8]
David Berkowitz, better known as Son of Sam,serial killer who confessed to killing six people and wounding several others in New York City during the late 1970s. Since becoming a Christian, Berkowitz has said that he should pay for the sins he has committed and will not seek parole. Berkowitz is now housed atShawangunk Correctional Facility.[9]
Joseph Christopher, a serial killer who committed murders in the early 1980s in Buffalo, Manhattan, and Rochester. He was held in Attica in 1985. He died March 1, 1993.[15]
Valentino Dixon[17] was exonerated and released in 2018, after 27 years of incarceration, after another man confessed to the murder for which Dixon was convicted.[18][19]
Dean Faiello, unlicensed physician who was convicted of the manslaughter of banker Maria Cruz in 2003.[20]
Kendall Francois murdered eight women and stored their bodies in his home inPoughkeepsie, New York. Serving a life sentence without parole, he died in September 2014.[21]
Sam Melville, notorious as "mad bomber" in 1960s. He was among 30 prisoners killed byNew York State Police and other law enforcement, in addition to 10 hostages, in their suppression of the Attica Prison uprising on September 13, 1971.[25]
David Sweat, killed aBroome County deputy sheriff in 2002 and escaped from Clinton Correctional Facility in 2015; was captured and transferred to Attica in 2017.[31]
In Season 2 Episode 2 ofThe Golden Girls, "Ladies of the Evening", Dorothy claims to have served a year at Attica while arguing with a cellmate at the local jail.[32]
Thompson, Heather Ann (August 23, 2016).BLOOD in the WATER : The Attica Prison Uprising of 1971 and Its Legacy (Vintage Books ed.). New York: Pantheon Books.ISBN9780375423222.
^"Facility ListingArchived September 23, 2006, at theWayback Machine." New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision. Retrieved on July 2, 2010. "Attica Correctional Facility 639 Exchange St Attica, New York 14011-0149."
^SeeAttica, The Official Report of the NYS Special Commission on Attica(1972);A Time To Die, (1972), byTom Wicker,New York Times editor and columnist, on the observer committee
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