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New Mexico State Penitentiary riot
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New Mexico State Penitentiary riot
The New Mexico State Penitentiary riot, which took place on February 2 and 3, 1980, at the Penitentiary of New Mexico (PNM) south of Santa Fe, was the most violent prison riot in U.S. history. Inmates took complete control of the prison and twelve officers were taken hostage. Several inmates were killed by other prisoners, with some being tortured and mutilated because they had previously acted as informants for prison authorities. Police regained control of PNM 36 hours after the riots had begun. By then, thirty-three inmates had died and more than two hundred were treated for injuries. None of the twelve officers taken hostage were killed, but seven suffered serious injuries caused by beatings and rapes.
There had been riots at PNM before it moved in 1956, the first occurring on July 19, 1922, and the second on June 15, 1953.
The causes of the riot are well documented. Author Roger Morris wrote that "the riot was a predictable incident based on an assessment of prison conditions." Prison overcrowding and inferior prison services, common problems in many correctional facilities, were major causes of the disturbance. On the night of the riot, there were 1,156 inmates in a prison that had beds for fewer than 963. First-time non-violent prisoners were not adequately separated from repeat violent prisoners. Many were housed in crowded, unsanitary dormitories. PNM's food was of poor quality, a problem which was exacerbated by the prevalence of cockroaches and mice. Intestinal diseases were common. A visiting warden reported PNM as the filthiest institution he had ever seen.
Another cause was the cancellation of educational, recreational and other rehabilitative programs. When the educational and recreational programs were stopped in 1975, prisoners had to be locked down for long periods. These conditions created strong feelings of deprivation and discontent in the inmate population that would increasingly lead to violence and disorder.
Inconsistent policies and poor communications meant relations between officers and inmates were increasingly in decline. These patterns have been described as paralleling trends in other U.S. prisons as populations started to grow in the 1970s. The Attica prison riot was organized with solidarity among prisoners, demonstrated by their lack of interest in attacking one another, whereas the "snitch system" in the New Mexico Penitentiary pitted inmate against inmate, resulting in the distrust among inmates unless identified with a group.
Following a change in prison leadership in 1975, the penitentiary experienced a shortage of trained correctional staff. A subsequent investigation by the state attorney general's office found that prison officials began coercing prisoners to become informants in a strategy known as "the snitch game". The report said that retribution for snitching led to an increased incidence of inmate-on-inmate violence at the prison in the late 1970s.
There had been several disturbances at the prison prior to the riot. In 1976, a work strike was organized by inmates as a response to the prison's poor conditions. In an attempt to subdue the protestors, Deputy Warden Robert Montoya authorized the use of tear gas against the striking prisoners. As they exited the dormitory coughing from the gas, “they were stripped naked and run nearly a hundred yards down the central corridor through a gauntlet of officials who beat them with ubiquitous ax handles. Called 'the night of the ax handles', the incident was corroborated by several eyewitnesses, including some officials themselves, and resulted in serious injuries as well as a federal lawsuit, still pending in 1982, naming deputy warden [Montoya] and a senior guard captain among the assailants". After this violent response to prisoners' concerns, one inmate, Dwight Duran, was prompted to draft a 99-page handwritten civil rights complaint to the United States District Court for the District of New Mexico called Duran v Apodaca, later to become the Duran Consent Decree. There was ample evidence from over ten grand jury investigations (between 1977 through 1979) about the conditions at the penitentiary, but the PNM administration resisted the changes and the legislature refused to allocate the necessary funds to make changes. The last time the US District Court grand jury ordered improvements was in November 1979, two months before the riot.
There have been conflicting reports about the inmate population at the time of the riot and the official capacity of the prison that weekend. According to the Report of the Attorney General on the February 2 and 3, 1980, Riot at the Penitentiary of New Mexico (PART I: The Penitentiary, the Riot, the Aftermath - Appendix C1) published the June after the riot, the design capacity of the penitentiary was 1,058, based on the Phase II Technical Report: Facilities Inventory of the 1977 New Mexico Corrections Master Plan. However, that number included the 60 beds in Cell Block 5, which was closed for renovations. It also included the 24 beds in the Annex and the 32 beds in the Modular Unit, both outside of the main facility. The official number of beds available, therefore, on the night of the riot was actually 974, but even that number is hardly fair as it includes the 11 solitary confinement cells in the basement of Cell Block 3. The official population of the prison the night of the riot was determined to be 1,156.
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New Mexico State Penitentiary riot
The New Mexico State Penitentiary riot, which took place on February 2 and 3, 1980, at the Penitentiary of New Mexico (PNM) south of Santa Fe, was the most violent prison riot in U.S. history. Inmates took complete control of the prison and twelve officers were taken hostage. Several inmates were killed by other prisoners, with some being tortured and mutilated because they had previously acted as informants for prison authorities. Police regained control of PNM 36 hours after the riots had begun. By then, thirty-three inmates had died and more than two hundred were treated for injuries. None of the twelve officers taken hostage were killed, but seven suffered serious injuries caused by beatings and rapes.
There had been riots at PNM before it moved in 1956, the first occurring on July 19, 1922, and the second on June 15, 1953.
The causes of the riot are well documented. Author Roger Morris wrote that "the riot was a predictable incident based on an assessment of prison conditions." Prison overcrowding and inferior prison services, common problems in many correctional facilities, were major causes of the disturbance. On the night of the riot, there were 1,156 inmates in a prison that had beds for fewer than 963. First-time non-violent prisoners were not adequately separated from repeat violent prisoners. Many were housed in crowded, unsanitary dormitories. PNM's food was of poor quality, a problem which was exacerbated by the prevalence of cockroaches and mice. Intestinal diseases were common. A visiting warden reported PNM as the filthiest institution he had ever seen.
Another cause was the cancellation of educational, recreational and other rehabilitative programs. When the educational and recreational programs were stopped in 1975, prisoners had to be locked down for long periods. These conditions created strong feelings of deprivation and discontent in the inmate population that would increasingly lead to violence and disorder.
Inconsistent policies and poor communications meant relations between officers and inmates were increasingly in decline. These patterns have been described as paralleling trends in other U.S. prisons as populations started to grow in the 1970s. The Attica prison riot was organized with solidarity among prisoners, demonstrated by their lack of interest in attacking one another, whereas the "snitch system" in the New Mexico Penitentiary pitted inmate against inmate, resulting in the distrust among inmates unless identified with a group.
Following a change in prison leadership in 1975, the penitentiary experienced a shortage of trained correctional staff. A subsequent investigation by the state attorney general's office found that prison officials began coercing prisoners to become informants in a strategy known as "the snitch game". The report said that retribution for snitching led to an increased incidence of inmate-on-inmate violence at the prison in the late 1970s.
There had been several disturbances at the prison prior to the riot. In 1976, a work strike was organized by inmates as a response to the prison's poor conditions. In an attempt to subdue the protestors, Deputy Warden Robert Montoya authorized the use of tear gas against the striking prisoners. As they exited the dormitory coughing from the gas, “they were stripped naked and run nearly a hundred yards down the central corridor through a gauntlet of officials who beat them with ubiquitous ax handles. Called 'the night of the ax handles', the incident was corroborated by several eyewitnesses, including some officials themselves, and resulted in serious injuries as well as a federal lawsuit, still pending in 1982, naming deputy warden [Montoya] and a senior guard captain among the assailants". After this violent response to prisoners' concerns, one inmate, Dwight Duran, was prompted to draft a 99-page handwritten civil rights complaint to the United States District Court for the District of New Mexico called Duran v Apodaca, later to become the Duran Consent Decree. There was ample evidence from over ten grand jury investigations (between 1977 through 1979) about the conditions at the penitentiary, but the PNM administration resisted the changes and the legislature refused to allocate the necessary funds to make changes. The last time the US District Court grand jury ordered improvements was in November 1979, two months before the riot.
There have been conflicting reports about the inmate population at the time of the riot and the official capacity of the prison that weekend. According to the Report of the Attorney General on the February 2 and 3, 1980, Riot at the Penitentiary of New Mexico (PART I: The Penitentiary, the Riot, the Aftermath - Appendix C1) published the June after the riot, the design capacity of the penitentiary was 1,058, based on the Phase II Technical Report: Facilities Inventory of the 1977 New Mexico Corrections Master Plan. However, that number included the 60 beds in Cell Block 5, which was closed for renovations. It also included the 24 beds in the Annex and the 32 beds in the Modular Unit, both outside of the main facility. The official number of beds available, therefore, on the night of the riot was actually 974, but even that number is hardly fair as it includes the 11 solitary confinement cells in the basement of Cell Block 3. The official population of the prison the night of the riot was determined to be 1,156.
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