Blood in the Water

Thompson discusses how when news of the prisoner settlement broke in 2000, survivors of the hostages’ families were outraged at the fact that they had gotten nothing. Following a local radio show phone-in, producer Deborah Horton decided that a two-hour live radio broadcast would be dedicated to responses to the prisoner settlement. Held at the Signature Café in downtown Attica, it brought together surviving hostages and families of hostages for the first time in decades.

Whatever their specific views of the prisoners, as Thompson says, “all agreed that the state had treated them abysmally and that it was time for them to come together as a group” (514). As such, a few months after the show, the survivors, families and hostages, joined together to form the Forgotten Victims of Attica, or FVOA. This was a politically mixed group of around 20 to 40 people, meeting every Monday. All were united in the desire to get restitution from the state.

Looking back to 1971, in the immediate aftermath of the retaking, some families of hostages, and hostages themselves, did try to pursue claims against the state. However, the state used an insidious ploy to ensure that most of the victims and victims’ families could not sue, giving them checks that, if cashed, counted as workplace compensation. According to state law, in doing this, they would have “elected a remedy” (518), which meant that they had given up the right to sue for damages. This point, though, was not made clear to victims.

One individual, Lynda Jones, widow of killed hostage Herbert Jones, decided not to cash the check and consulted lawyer William Cunningham instead. He quickly realized what was going on and pursued damages for Jones. Engaging in a lengthy legal battle with much obstruction from law enforcement, Jones eventually won $550,000 in compensation in 1982. The other victims had still gotten nothing.

In 2000, after the prisoner compensation, the FVOA lobbied officials to get their case heard. This was because the legal option had been removed due to the compensation checks. The state, under political pressure, offered widows $50,000 each. However, this offer was rejected by the FVOA due to the small sums involved and the lack of an apology.

Instead they proposed a “five-point-plan for justice” (529), which included an official acknowledgement of state wrongdoing, opening of state records, counseling, compensation in line with the Jones case, and acknowledgement of duplicity regarding the initial compensation checks. After stalling, Governor Pataki announced a task force to examine these demands and what happened at Attica. The task force scheduled public hearings for April 2002.

Eighty-five people came over two days to Empire State Plaza in Albany to tell their story, often speaking of subsequent trauma suffered by surviving hostages, widows, and their children. One of the most heartrending of these, according to Thompson, was that of Anne Valone, whose son, 10 at the time of Attica, ended up hanging himself age 33. Malcolm Bell also testified to corroborate many of the stories. It was, as well, made clear how “state officials had swindled the surviving hostages and hostage widows via the workman’s compensation system” (539).

After the hearings, it was not clear how or whether the FVOA demands would be met. So, they needed to attract public support, enlisting the help of various CO trade unions. The task force in 2003 offered $8 million for the FVOA, but this offer was rejected on the grounds that it was smaller than Jones or the prisoners had received, and because the FVOA’s four other demands had been ignored. As a result, they enlisted the help of a lobbyist who then entered negotiations with Governor Pataki’s counsel directly. In 2005, they won $12 million in compensation, the same figure given to the prisoners in 2000.

With the award there was now the question of how it should be distributed. Deanne Quinn Miller reached out to Judge Telesca, who had earlier helped organize distribution of funds for the prisoners. This was after the FVOA had voted unanimously to accept the settlement. The $12 million would be paid over six years, but there was a debate over who deserved what. Quinn Miller argued that the widows should get more, whereas Michael Smith made the case for the surviving hostages. In the end the former were given $500,000 each, the latter $380,000. As Thompson suggests, this victory was hollow because the state had never openly admitted blame.

In her short Epilogue, Thompson discusses the longer-term impacts of Attica. She notes that its legacy is ambiguous. Due to events at Attica, many positive reforms were implemented at both state and federal levels in the 1970s. However, in part owing to the initial stories about prisoner atrocities, it helped fuel a “tough on crime” agenda throughout the 1980s, 1990s, and beyond. This has led to the phenomenon known as “mass incarceration,” leading the US to have by far the biggest prison population in the world.