New York State Department of Correctional Services Attica Task Force Minutes of Public Hearings

In March 2001 Governor George Pataki appointed the Attica Task Force to investigate issues raised by The Forgotten Victims of Attica (FVOA) and to make recommendations based on the task force's findings. The task force consisted of Chairman Glenn S. Goord, Commissioner of the Department of Correctional Services; New York State Senator, 59th District, Dale M. Volker; and Deputy Assembly Speaker Arthur O. Eve. Assembly Member, 35th District, Jeffrion Aubry (chair of the Corrections Committee) also sat in on the hearings. The FVOA had recommended that independent persons be appointed to the fact-finding panel, but none were appointed.

The Attica group, FVOA, composed of former hostages and their survivors, had asked to be compensated for the state government's role in the September 9, 1971 prison uprising, in which dozens of correction officers and civilian employees were taken hostage before State Troopers retook the prison four days later. The final death toll was 32 inmates and 11 prison employees. Many others were seriously injured.

In January 2000, after years of litigation, the state agreed to a $12 million settlement, of which $8 million went to compensate inmates and relatives for the abuse that the prisoners suffered, and $4 million went for lawyers' fees. But nearly all the prison employees and their families had unknowingly forfeited their legal right to sue the state shortly after the uprising as a condition of receiving workers' compensation for their losses.

In May-August of 2002 the task force held six days of public hearings in Rochester and Albany to hear testimony from many of the former hostages and their survivors. Based on the Attica Task Force's recommendations, in January 2005 Governor Pataki approved a $12 million settlement for deaths and injuries sustained by prison personnel in the Attica riot.

This series consists of transcribed testimony of former hostages taken in the uprising at Attica Correctional Facility in September 1971. The testimony was given between May and August 2002 before a task force appointed by Governor George Pataki.

Digital copies of hearing transcripts are available through the "Attica Revisited" web site (http://www.talkinghistory.org/attica/).

There are no restrictions regarding access to or use of this material.