Thursday, March 5, 2015

The Echoes of Attica


                  On a regular work day for me in a newspaper wire room, 'ripping and reading', in September of 1971, Attica was introduced to me; not as a place but as a cause. The cause was justice! It was on the ninth day of that month the infamous riot began, resulting in the loss of 39 human lives and becoming known as “the bloodiest one-day encounter between Americans since the Civil War”. The reason for the riot was the request by the inmates for meager improvements in their hygiene and diet and work conditions.

                   Three days ago the echoes of Attica resounded. After almost three years crawling through the court system, three correctional officers, Sean Warner, Keith Swack and Matthew Rademacher, were allowed to plead  to a misdemeanor conviction for misconduct for savagely brutalizing an inmate (George Williams) after dragging him from his cell to a darkened corridor where there were no cameras to witness. He was beaten with batons, fists and kicks until he begged for his life, as inmates in nearby cells watched the attack.  His injuries were two broken legs; one had to be realigned surgically using a plate and several screws; a fracture of his left eye orbit; several cracked ribs; a broken shoulder; and multiple cuts and bruises. He had a mere four months left of his sentence before he could step out into the air of Wyoming County, NY.  But the word ‘mere’ is really a misnomer when it comes to serving time, especially at Attica. Each hour could prove to be a life threatening encounter. Warner, Swack and Rademacher will not be returning to the bucolic cornfields where Attica sits and their penalty includes entitlement to their pensions even as they are rid from the system.

                        Why do we have a different and seemingly secretive brand of justice system for our once trusted institutions; our churches, our universities, our prisons, our military? Are these bodies so separated behind gates, bars, razor ribbon and ivy covered walls that we’ve agreed to keep the knowledge and penalty of the violence inside? It’s time to treat criminal behavior, wherever it occurs, with the same laws we are all governed by! As for Attica, the rumbles of violence are thunderous...echoes usually become almost inaudible over time but little has changed at Attica. Ask George Williams.

                        I invite you to read here a small segment of my book “Geranium Justice” describing my welcome to Attica:

                        Then came the day that did change everything in my life. It was September 9th, 1971, while I was working in the wire room ‘ripping and reading’ that I learned about Attica, along with the rest of the world.  I read the accounts of the riot that had been fomenting for a while because inmates wanted to have more than one roll of toilet paper per month and more than one shower a week, and reasonable non-racist work assignments, among other fair demands.  The reports came to me in stereo as while I read the wires I talked by phone to Joe who was covering the story circling the prison battlefield in a helicopter. By the next day, 1,281 inmates held 43 hostages and took control of cellblocks and buildings trying to get the officials’ attention. After four days of repeated attempts at negotiations by the inmates and standoffs by the authorities, the machismo of Governor Rockefeller trying to be in power rather than right, resulted in his sending in between 500 to one thousand state troopers spraying the population in the yard with bullets after they were felled by tear gas from the sky making Attica’s grounds the bloodiest one-day encounter between Americans since the Civil War”. It cost 39 human lives and made an indelible imprint in the annals of history; a cautionary tale of injustice.

 

“There are different ways to get to Attica: the state can send you, you can visit or you can work there. But everyone has to travel on (I-90) West to Exit 48, to Route 98S, to Route 238S. Turn right at Exchange Street traffic light. Facility is on left. There’s no U Turn if the state sends you.”

 

 

Tuesday, February 24, 2015

Still Rikers Island

The brutality towards inmates by corrections staff at Rikers Island continues in spite of the national spotlight shining blindingly on this 413 acre parcel of land that sits in the East River. Since 1932, it has been the gateway for hundreds of thousands of human lives entering our criminal justice system; some for a long time and some for a little while and some not even guilty. For this is the place where people are warehoused while the scales of justice are being balanced and while they wait they become the property of the Department of Correction. The stories of abuse abound even as reform is purported to be taking place. Here’s my written snapshot of the Island excerpted from my book “Geranium Justice”: “When one goes over the bridge to Rikers Island in East Elmhurst, Queens, you can’t help but notice the drama. The island is half the size of Central Park. Families are doing their time on the outside and waiting in long quays to see their loved ones. The self contained island stretches before you and every six hours the stench of low tide adds to the surreal colony that sits between Queens and Bronx Counties with 15,000 people living here classified in ten different buildings. This is also the flight path and within reach of LaGuardia Airport. It’s so close that the jets blow off fuel as you round the ring road to the first staging point. Before crossing the bridge over the East River you’re stopped by officers and must show your clearance. I watch the families who are dropped off at this ‘first base’ and who have to wait outdoors in all weather for buses to take them across to the Island. They are mostly the faces of women and children; the mothers, the wives, the girlfriends, their kids. You feel the intimidating and arrogant attitude of the officers who so hate their work and are serving their own time counting their days until retirement. Once over the bridge if you’re in a private car, you find a place in the huge parking lot before entering the ‘control building’ where the ordinary visitor signs in, gets searched and puts jewelry, purses, possessions in lockers before stepping on yet another bus to the individual jails. No ordinary visitor me, I drive my car to the parking area in front of ‘C-73’ avoiding the bus that goes throughout the complex. This is where the women are housed. I draw in a huge breath and pray this goes well, my first of thousands of times. Jails are strange lockups. You might say they’re the original in mixed housing. They house people who have been convicted of a crime and are awaiting transfer to state prisons, they house people who are held without bail or people who can’t make bail awaiting trial, they house people who have been convicted of crimes that carry only jail time of up to one year and they house people who have never even jay-walked in their lives. The emphasis here is on security, designating separate housing for the different classifications. Ultimately, all kinds of women over 21 live here, guilty and not guilty. I show my credentials in a heavily deodorized hall to a CO behind a teller’s window (a bubble) and the first gate opens. I sign several different visitors’ books before an escort guides me through the labyrinth of halls and bars to a place that will become my office on Tuesdays and Thursdays.”

Sunday, February 22, 2015

Coming Home

Geranium Justice has been on a break but wait, it’s about to start again. There are so many stories to tell you; tales of redemption, second chances and successes, in spite of the odds stacked against the outcomes. These will belong to those who’ve been on the other side of the walls, those who are still there and those who are doing their time on the outside working on correcting damages done to them and by them. I want to thank you all for reading Geranium Justice. Although many of you have been among the rarest of people who claim not to have been affected by crime or the criminal justice system (although this is hard to believe as we are all tax payers), you have all told me that after reading the book you’ve become sensitized to the issues and that you’ve envisioned and connected to not only me but the people I’ve written about. I thank you again as these people don’t have a voice and few hear them when they do speak. While my book is my story, I’ve heard so many of you relate to my experience of single parenting, women’s issues in the work place, following a dream and taking risks for what you believe in. It’s hard to look the other way once we become aware of injustice. Our great moral questions lie beneath the screaming daily headlines of brutality in our prisons, convictions of innocents, the death penalty, privacy vs. public safety, restorative justice and the many ordinary debates that consider individual rights along with greater public good. I hope to take you along in my travels exploring these questions and I expect we will find that one size does not fit all. My search is also to bring you hope in a way that will balance the scales of the fear and sensationalism we regularly hear. You have time to read Geranium Justice which is available online through Amazon and Barnes and Noble and ebooks, if you are behind the times. Check back often as I will catch up with you soon. “There is a field beyond right and wrong. I will meet you there” Bobbi