A Time to Die

A Time to Die by Tom Wicker is one of the most important accounts and, perhaps, the most comprehensive account available on the inmate uprising and takeover of the Attica Correctional Facility in upstate New York in 1971. Wicker was asked by the protesting inmates in control of the prison's D-yard to be one of the outside observers who would visit the prisoners, check on the condition and treatment of the hostages held in D-yard as well as inmates in other parts of the facility not controlled by the prisoners, and help negotiate terms of prison reform between the prisoners and prison authorities. Wicker was a New York Times columnist who often wrote on the subject of prisoner's rights and wrote several sympathetic articles on George Jackson, a San Quentin inmate who many non-white prisoners regarded as a freedom fighter, after he was killed by prison guards for allegedly hiding a weapon in his Afro earlier that year. The Attica inmates saw Wicker as a respected journalist on their side and invited him among others to visit the prison. Wicker is a self-professed "limousine liberal" and definitely wrote this book with a pro-prisoner perspective. The ideals of the Civil Rights Movement were still very fresh and many of the inmate's 15 "practical proposals" (more African American and Puerto Rican prison guards to reflect the racial make-up among the prison population, religious freedom, improved meals with less pork which many inmates did not wish to eat for religious reasons, better medical care, etc) seemed very reasonable. Wicker, however, is no radical. He was concerned when potential firebrands like lawyer William Kunstler (who defended the Chicago 7), Muslim activist Jaybarr Kenyatta, and Black Panther Bobby Seale joined the observers, although he later criticized Seale for showing a lack of interest and abandoning the cause. As a journalist, Wicker also showed a realistic understanding of what the authorities and society would accept. Minimum wages for all state institutions he knew was probably not a realistic goal. The inmates five "demands" also, according to Wicker, posed a problem to a peaceful settlement; especially the first 2. The inmates were uncompromising in their demands for complete amnesty from "physical, mental and legal reprisals" and for transportation "to a non-imperialist country." Wicker knew these demands could never be met, especially after a prison guard died from head trauma suffered during the initial takeover. Wicker described his experience in the prison and the different people he met at D-yard, both leaders and non-leaders of the rebellion, as well as prisoners in C-block who were not able to take part in the uprising and a few of whom did not support it. He was most concerned, however, about the ample supply of weapons for the state troopers surrounding the prison. With all the weapons in hand, Wicker concluded that the ultimate question was "Why not use them?": this observation proved to be prophetic

The fact that this book is out of print should be seen as a black mark against the conscience -- or lack thereof -- of American society. It indicates that we Americans are again suffering from a sense of collective amnesia; that we have willfully chosen to forget a shameful event in our history: the prison uprising at Attica prison in upstate New York that ended with the undeserved deaths of more than two dozen inmates in 1971.Wicker, a fine journalist who was at the time of the revolt an editorial writer with the New York Times, was one of a group of outsiders summoned to the prison by inmate spokesmen to observe negotiations between the inmates and prison authorities. "A Time to Die" is a detailed account of what he saw during the several-day standoff as he and his colleagues struggled to piece together a settlement that would avoid shedding the blood of the revolting inmates and of the prison guards the inmates had taken hostage during the insurrection.Wicker's analysis lays bare the conditions at Attica that led to the uprising. Dietary and sanitary conditions were far less than adequate; guards were poorly trained and particularly ill-equipped to deal with large numbers of African-American and Latino prisoners; attempts to rehabilitate prisoners or to prepare them for productive life outside the walls of the prison were woefully inadequate; and the labor of the prisoners was exploited for the benefit of the small town in which the institution resided.The blueprint for a tragic ending was mapped early in the violent revolt that sent hundreds of inmates into the prison's D Yard, where they set up an informal society. One of the prison guards was badly injured and died shortly thereafter. From that point on, the inmates' demand for amnesty and for redress of their many grievances met a wall of resistance from prison authorities and ultimately from the governor of New York, Nelson Rockefeller.A measure of Wicker's sympathy clearly lies with the inmates, but he is fair in illuminating the problems facing authorities as well. They were under enormous -- and understandable -- pressure from the families of hostages and from society at large, which demanded a get-tough stance against criminals whose demands for rights outraged a weary post-'60s society ready for a return to "law and order," as the president of the day, Richard Nixon, had called for.In the end, after many desperate efforts by Wicker and the other observers at compromise, Rockefeller gave into those demands and ordered a full-scale assault on the captured prison yard. Although the inmates were armed with nothing more than crude weapons, 29 were killed and dozens more were seriously injured. Although the State claimed initially that wounds suffered by the hostages were inflicted by the prisoners, subsequent investigations proved otherwise.Most shameful was the post-pacification treatment of the prisoners who survived the attack. They were stripped, made to run a gauntlet of officers who