Book Rec: Blood in the Water, The Attica Prison Uprising of 1971

Unspeakable violence that we don't talk about

From the shelf: Disaster, Destruction, Death, and the Mistakes We Make

Book: Blood in the Water

This book recounts the history of Attica prison in upstate New York, at a time in the US when conditions at prisons were the subject of frequent protests. About half of the prisoners in Attica took control over part of the prison, took guards hostage, and made a list of demands for changes in prison policy. Four days later, the prison is violently taken back into state control. The New York State archives describes:

Tear gas is dropped by helicopter and a near-indiscriminate barrage of almost 2,000 rounds is fired by State Police and Corrections officers.

Those 2,000 rounds were fired into a yard in which no one had a single gun. They killed 29 prisoners and 10 guards. It’s a massacre. Details of what occurred is quickly covered up.

Blood in the Water provides context for Attica’s uprising, the story of how it unfolded, and its bloody end. But I was surprised by how much was dedicated to the decades long legal and political struggle for prisoners, guards, and their families to get restitution and recognition from the state. In some ways, it was the families of murdered guards who were treated the cruelest by the state.

I found myself recommending this book a lot in the summer of 2020. It’s a deep, compelling study of police brutality, not just of the act itself, but also the stories and motivations of everyone involved, from the prisoners’ families to the New York governor. And I still think of it every time I hear any type of police misbehavior described as “an isolated event.” You can’t isolate violence from the people it affects.

And I did not fully realize until reading how much it is ingrained into society that criminals’ lives matter less. It’s okay if they’re mistreated, it’s okay if they’re dehumanized, it’s okay if they’re killed. Disagree? Read this book.

Buy here on bookshop.