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Attica Correctional Facility
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The Attica Correctional Facility is a maximum-security prison located in Attica, New York, a small town located midway between Buffalo and Rochester, at 42°50′59″N 78°16′18″W / 42.84972, -78.27167. The adjacent Wyoming Correctional Facility, which is a medium security prison, is paired with Attica.
It held many of the most dangerous criminals of the time when it was constructed in the 1930s. A tear gas system is installed in the mess hall and industry areas and has been used to quell conflicts in these areas. The prison now holds many inmates who are serving various types of sentences (short-term to life sentences), and who are usually sent to the facility because of disciplinary problems in other facilities.
Riots
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Attica was the site of a prison riot in 1971 which resulted in 39 deaths, of which 29 were inmates and 10 were correctional officers held hostage. They died by gunfire from state troopers and guards.
Notable inmates
- Santino "The Butcher" Valenti, notorious as the head of an organized crime outfit in Los Angeles.
- Willie "The Actor" Sutton, who robbed 100 banks from the late 1920s to 1952.
- Mark David Chapman, the man who notoriously assassinated John Lennon on December 8, 1980. Chapman was sentenced to 20 years to life and was imprisoned in 1981. He has been denied parole five times amidst campaigns against his release.
- Eddie "the Butcher" Cummiskey, Westies hitman during the 1970s. Most notable for being killed in the mid-1990s for supposedly stealing the alias of a fellow inmate.
- Kendall Francois, who raped and strangled at least 8 prostitutes in the Poughkeepsie area in the late 1990s
- Colin Ferguson, who randomly shot 6 people to death aboard a Long Island Rail Road commuter train in 1993.
- Richard Bilello, sadist rapist and murderer who was an associate of the Lucchese crime family
- David Gilbert, former Weatherman who here served part of his 75 year sentence for an armored car robbery in connection with the Black Liberation Army.
- David Berkowitz, better known as Son of Sam, a serial killer who confessed to killing six people and wounding several others in New York City in the late 1970s. He has been denied parole three times so far. He is now housed at Sullivan Correctional Facility in Fallsburg, New York.
- H. Rap Brown, Black Panther leader, served a sentence in Attica from 1971 to 1976.
- Craig Godineaux is serving a life sentence as John Taylor's accessory to the murders of 5 employees of a Wendy's hamburger restaurant in Queens.
- Winston Moseley, murderer of Kitty Genovese.
- Joel Rifkin,Convicted Murderer of 18 New York City Prostitutes
References in pop culture
- Attica is mentioned in the film Dog Day Afternoon as Al Pacino's character, Sonny Wortzik, screams "Attica, Attica!" repeatedly to the public while robbing a bank. He does this to recall the prison riots where many were killed.
- Saturday Night Fever, John Travolta. In the club, a woman begs to kiss Tony and gushes "it was like kissing Al Pacino!" Later, while looking at a poster of Al Pacino in the mirror, Tony comes out of his room shouting, "Attica! Attica! Attica!".
- The HBO film Against the Wall, starring Samuel L Jackson, is about the 1971 Attica Prison Riots.
- John Lennon wrote a song about Attica for his Sometime In New York City album. John Lennon's assassin, Mark David Chapman, is currently imprisoned in Attica.
- In the Spike Lee film He Got Game, Denzel Washington's character is imprisoned at Attica.
- In the film Repo Man, Plettschner says to Otto: "You little scumbag! I worked five years in a slaughterhouse, and ten years as a prison guard in Attica!"
- In the film Carlito's Way, the character Lalin (Viggo Mortensen) was serving 30 years in Attica, before he "beat it".
- The Attica Prison riot is mentioned in the film Half Nelson in an oral presentation done by an African-American student. Film footage of the riot is shown over the dialogue of the student.
- Mentioned in The Usual Suspects, where Verbal is threatened that "Ruby's in Attica," in reference to a criminal Agent David Kujan had some part in bringing to justice and to whom Verbal had some unmentioned connection.
- Mentioned in the House episode "Lines in the Sand" as Dr. Gregory House (Hugh Laurie) shouts "Attica, Attica!" repeatedly to Dr. Lisa Cuddy (Lisa Edelstein) in an attempt to get her to re-carpet his office.
- Mentioned in the television show It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia, when Charlie attempts to scare people away, he screams "Attica! Attica!"
- In a WCW storyline, as Kevin Nash was being arrested (as part of the angle) he began screaming "Attica! Attica!" repeatedly.
- Attica is frequently referenced on New York based police dramas, such as Law & Order, Law & Order: SVU, and Law & Order: CI.
- Mentioned in GoodFellas. Near the end of the film, when Ray Liotta's character Henry Hill is arrested, he is told by the arresting officer at the police station "Bye bye dickhead, see you in Attica dick".
- Mentioned in The Sopranos, in the first season when Tony Soprano aggressively confronts Dr. Melfi regarding her intimation that Tony's mother, Livia Soprano, is implicit in attempts on Tony's life; "That's my mother you're talking about, not some fuck up in Attica..."
- Mentioned in If I Ruled the World (Imagine That) by Nas, "I'd open every cell in Attica, send them to Africa".
- Mentioned in the poem Hadda be Playin' on a Jukebox by Allen Ginsberg (sometimes performed by Rage Against the Machine).
- Mentioned in the HBO series "Oz." Tim McManus [Terry Kinney] tells Minister Said about his childhood, living in the town where the Attica prison is, and how the riots changed his life.
- On the animated show The Critic Jay Sherman flashes back to the summer of 1972 were his mother thinks she is sending him to summer camp but in actuality has placed little Jay on the bus to Attica Prison.
- Imitating Al Pacino, "Attica! Attica!" is sung by Zach De La Rocha in the song CIA (Criminals in Action) alongside KRS and Last Emperor.
- The heavy metal band Merederem repeatedly shouts "Attica!" in their song "Attica".
- Jimmy James (Stephen Root) is imprisoned in "Gattica" in the NewsRadio 5th season episode "Jail".
- In the film Naked Gun 33 1/3, Frank Drebin goes undercover in Statesville Prison. As he is put in his cell he yells "Ain't no prison yet could hold me. Attica! Attica! Power to the brothers. Kill whitey!"
- Joey, the protagonist of the homonymous Bob Dylan song, “He did ten years in Attica, reading Nietzsche and Wilhelm Reich. They threw him in the hole one time for tryin' to stop a strike.”
- In the controversial video game Postal², if a police officer attacks a civilian (with or without reason) other NPCs will begin fleeing, making comments such as "I've lost my faith in the system" and "Attica! Attica!"
- In Sabrina, the Teenage Witch, the cat Salem was subject to imprisonment as restitution for his crime, to which he denounces and starts to yell, "Cattica! Cattica!"
- In an episode of Men in Black: The Series, aliens imprisoned at a correctional facility stage a breakout. As they are escaping one begins to chant "Attica! Attica! Attica!"
- In an episode of the Nickelodeon series SpongeBob SquarePants, a fantasized scene of a thief robbing a bank shows the thief with Spongebob's nametag, shouting "This is a bank robbery! Attica!"
- In the movie The Taking of Pelham 1-2-3, the Police Commissioner refers to the 1971 riots by stating "Well, we don't want another Attica, do we?" Since the Mayor in the movie is unpopular, there was a fear that the citizens of the city would riot if the police were to storm the subway car that was under siege by the armed robbers.
- In an episode of Hey Joel, Joel creates a televised VH1-sponsored Jewel concert at Attica that soon turns into a riot.
- In an episode of The Golden Girls, Dorothy, Blanche, and Rose are arrested for prostitution. While in jail, Blanche aggravates a fellow inmate, and Dorothy intervenes by mentioning that she did time in Attica. The fellow inmate states that Attica's a men's prison to which Dorothy replies, "I know, I was there a year before they found out!"
- Attica is a song by Spear Of Destiny on their 1984 album, One Eyed Jacks.
- Mentioned by Hip hop group Mobb Deep in their song 'Let A Ho Be A Ho' off their 1999 album Murda Muzik
- Referred to by Papoose in various of his songs including "Head of state" and "Bloody War" amongst many others
- Mentioned by underground Hip-Hop artist Sabac Red on his track "Urban Gorillas"
- Mentioned by "Tig" in the episode "Patch Over" of the television show Sons of Anarchy. Juice: "Why do you gotta be that way?" Tig: "You ever been to Attica?"
- Mentioned by Busta Rhymes in his song 'Cocaina'.
- In Desperate Housewives while Bree was talking to Orsen about his time in prison for the hit and run of Mike telling him that "It wasn't exactly Attica".
External links
Coordinates: 42°50′59″N 78°16′18″W / 42.84972, -78.27167
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