Often associated with seizure of
control, violence, prison riots are extreme ways in which prison inmates
voice their grievances against prison administrators, authorities.
Prisoners resort to such manner when they believe that only a defiance
or disorder can get their unfair condition noticed by public and
government. Some of the riots in the history have made correction
practitioners take measures to prevent any such activity from occurring.
Let’s have a look at five of the biggest prison rites:
New Mexico Penitentiary Riot//New-Mexico-Penitentiary.jpg" style="width: 635;height: 424" border="0" alt=""/>link
The
New Mexico Penitentiary Riot,
which took place on February 2 and February 3, 1980, in the
state’s maximum security prison south of Santa Fe, was one of the most
violent prison riots in the history of the American correctional system:
33 inmates died and more than 200 inmates were treated for
injuries. None of the 12 officers taken hostage were killed, but seven
were treated for injuries caused by beatings and rapes.
Ashwell Prison Riot/
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Hundreds of prisoners went on the
rampage in Ashwell Prison at Oakham, Rutland in Britain’s worst jail
riot for nearly 20 years. More than 400 inmates broke out of their cells
and set fire to jail buildings. Several prisoners smashed their way out
into the prison grounds, but none are believed to have escaped. The
trouble started when officers found an inmate drunk on hooch – potent
alcohol brewed by prisoners – wandering in the grounds.
Attica Correctional Facility Riot/
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The four-day revolt at the
maximum-security Attica Correctional Facility near Buffalo, New York, in
year 1971 is one of the worst riots in past. Ended when hundreds of
state police officers storm the complex in a hail of gunfire.
Thirty-nine people were killed in the disastrous assault, including 29
prisoners and 10 prison guards and employees held hostage since the
outset of the ordeal.
São Paulo prison Riot/
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One of the deadliest episodes in recent
decades took place in 1992 in São Paulo, Brazil, where 111 prisoners
were killed as authorities sought to put down an uprising. Human-rights
groups accused corrections officers of shooting inmates
indiscriminately, even those who had surrendered. A Brazilian police
colonel was sentenced to 600 years in prison for using excessive force
in retaking the facility; the conviction was later overturned.
Oklahoma State Prison Riot/
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In July 1973 the Oklahoma State Prison
at McAlester erupted into one of the worst prison riots in U.S. history.
Crowded conditions that led to the riot had been in place almost since
the facility’s construction in 1911. Housing capacity for eleven hundred
inmates was surpassed in 1920, and by 1973 the prison population
exceeded twenty-two hundred. Gov. David Hall’s refusal to sign parole
recommendations for drug offenders and individuals convicted of violent
crimes had contributed to prison overcrowding. Ill-qualified and too few
correctional officers, violence perpetrated by the “convict bosses,”
and other factors also led to prisoners’ discontent.