Close down Attica Prison
This petition had 188 supporters
PETITION TO CLOSE ATTICA PRISON
The Honorable Andrew M. Cuomo
Governor of New YorkState
NYSStateCapitolBuilding
Albany, NY12224
Dear Governor Cuomo,
We are asking today that you take a principled stance against one of our country’s most enduring symbols of brutality and racism by closing the Attica Correctional Facility. Closing Attica would not resolve larger systemic problems, but would be a first step on the part of New YorkState to address the widespread violations of basic human rights that exist throughout the prison system.
In September of 1971, the men incarcerated in New YorkState’s Attica Correctional Facility staged a four-day protest against the inhumane conditions they were forced to endure. They were demanding that their basic civil and human rights be respected. Nelson Rockefeller, New York’s governor at the time, refused to negotiate with the observers about the more than legitimate demands of the protesters. Instead, Rockefeller sent in the State Police to end the protest. During the siege, state forces killed 39 people, including 10 correctional officers.
Today, conditions remain largely the same throughout the prison system. While other prisons, both in New YorkState and throughout the US, are also very brutal, Attica, because of its legendary 1971 uprising and massacre, is a symbol in this country and around the world of a horrific, brutal, racist system and a nation characterized by mass incarceration.
Four decades after the uprising, Attica does not only stand as a symbol for a legacy of racism and a culture of brutality, but many of the actual conditions remain as they were in 1971. Governor Cuomo, you stated that prisons should not be used as a “jobs program.” You have closed some prisons, but these closures did not include any maximum-security prisons, where much of the worst brutality occurs. Attica is both an example and a major site of the abusive conditions that prevail in New York’s maximum-security prisons. We request, simply, that you reject the culture of brutality and racism that the prison system is currently built on and close Attica. If we are committed to humanity, respecting the lives of those lost in 1971, and the many brutalized today, we must close Attica.
Sincerely,
Name: ___________________________________________________
City: _____________________________________________________
E-mail address:_____________________________________________
Please return this petition to FMAJC, P.O. Box 16, College Station, New York, NY 10030
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