Search About Newsletters Donate
During the 1971 uprising at Attica State Prison, prisoners wearing cloaks and football helmets, some of them with makeshift weapons, waited to negotiate their demands with state officials. Bob Schutz/Associated Press
Updated 5:20 p.m. EDT
09.14.2021
Looking Back

Revisiting the Attica Riot in Real-Time 50 Years Later

The infamous 1971 prison revolt ended with a bloody police siege. We retell the story, minute-by-minute.

On the morning of Sept. 13, 1971, New York state troopers raided the rural upstate Attica prison where prisoners had taken control four days earlier, holding dozens of guards and other employees hostage and demanding reforms. By the time order was restored, 10 hostages and 29 prisoners had been killed by police gunfire. Scores more were wounded. Four others — one guard and three prisoners — were killed by the prisoners earlier in the rebellion.

The Marshall Project has written about the tensions and brutality that still pervade Attica today and the many books that explore the conditions that made Attica ripe for revolt and the investigations that followed.

To mark the 50th anniversary of this seminal moment in American criminal justice history, The Marshall Project told the story of the uprising from beginning to end. As we did five years ago for the 45th anniversary, we used Twitter to walk through the events that led up to the riot, the days of negotiations for the release of the hostages and finally, the violent state police siege that ended the stalemate.

Each tweet went out at roughly the same date and time as the events 50 years earlier. Here, we've collected the entire updated storyline from @atticasghosts.

Become a Member

Join the community that keeps criminal justice on the front page.

Sept. 8, 1971

Sept. 9, 1971

Sept. 10, 1971

Life Inside newsletter

Subscribe to get essays delivered to you as they're published every week.

Sept. 11, 1971

Sept. 12, 1971

Sept. 13, 1971

Sept. 14, 1971

Our reporting has real impact on the criminal justice system

View All Impact Arrow
A Black woman in a blue shirt stands in a kitchen.
The local sheriff’s department revised its policy on publicly releasing bodycam footage after we pressed for footage of a deputy’s shooting of a teenager in downtown Cleveland.
Crishala Reed wrote on a jury questionnaire that she supports Black Lives Matter. She was soon removed from the jury pool
The Marshall Project’s 2020 story of a woman who was struck from a jury pool helped advocates push for a bill to discourage juror discrimination.
Chris Morton, a man with light-toned skin and wearing a blue suit jacket and tie, stands near a window.
Our April 2022 investigation with The New York Times into the political messaging spread by Crime Stoppers of Houston contributed to an investigation into the organization.

Our journalism establishes facts, exposes failures and examines solutions for a criminal justice system in crisis. If you believe in what we do, become a member today.

Donate

Stay up to date on our reporting and analysis.

Tags: →Attica Correctional Facility →Attica →Prison Riot →Prison Reform
About
People
Jobs
Sitemap
Funders