Communication In The Attica Sparknotes

“The prison thrives on segregation: it segregates prisoners from the outside world, and then segregates prisoners from one another based on assorted administrative protocols” (Berger, pg. 229). Prison life for those in the 1970’s is described perfectly by this quote. Prisoners were isolated from their own peers in the prison, as well as to those on the outside. This caused prisoners all over the world to participate in different kinds of demonstrations to show their frustrations with the treatment they were receiving while incarnated. This frustration is one of the many reasons prisoners at Attica revolted and sent out a list of demands, which includes demanding that those in power should “allow all inmates, at their own expense, to communicate

After the uprising had ended, reporters only relayed what the officials had told them had happened, which demonstrates how prisoner’s attempts to communicate were limited and, in my opinion, not taken seriously. Those in power created a story of them trying their hardest to negotiate peacefully, but the prisoners wanted to choose violence. Although this tactic was the motivation in many of the revolts seen in other United States prisons, this was not the case for Attica. Attica prisoners just wanted their fifteen demands to be heard and met. In their proposal they said, “WE are MEN! We are not beasts and do not intend to be beaten or driven as such…What has happened here is but the sound before the fury of those who are oppressed” (Mullings and Marable, pg. 467). They did not want a bloodbath. The story spun by those in power is what everyone heard before the prisoners had a chance to explain what had happened to them. This demonstrates how communication on the prisoner’s part was silenced. If it had not been for the autopsies revealing the truth, I am not sure the prisoner’s story would have ever gotten

Although it might not seem related to this discussion on communication, this is one of the reasons prison officials shut down communication between prisoners and those outside. On page 143, it says, “By its structure, the prison lends itself to oppositional forms of organizing that revolve around producing and sharing knowledge. Prisoner study groups and memoirs, investigation into prison conditions, communication between prisoners and those outside of prison – all engage in the access and transmission of knowledge” (Berger). Due to prisoners conversing and detailing the conditions in which they were living in, those in power stopped allowing them to talk to others. To demonstrate this, we can look at the prison in Southern Illinois that was designed specifically for “problem inmates” (Berger, 238). In this prison, inmates were subject to psychological abuses and absolute isolation. This “…demonstrated that the state’s power was in fact growing rather than shrinking, at least with regard to punishment” (Berger,