Respect and the Attica Correctional Facility Research Paper

Respect and the Attica Correctional Facility - Research Paper Example After three days of negotiating the state police opened fire after tear gas was dropped on the rioting inmates. The death toll came to 29 inmates and 10 hostages which the state tried to claim came from ‘zip guns’ which are homemade guns that inmates sometimes make and that some had their throats cut. In the end, it was proven that all died of real gunshot wounds and that the inmates had not had any zip guns. The state police had killed them all. The corruption in the prison included not only brutal punishments by the guards on the prisoners, but racial discrimination and punishment that was based upon the color of skin a man wore (Danver, 2011). There were many consequences from the actions taken in this riot. After the riots one of the inmates, Frank Smith was made to lie naked on a table with a football balanced on his chest. He was told that should he let the ball fall he would be castrated. The guards also established other tortures including making naked men run a gauntlet of nightsticks or crawl through glass. Frank Smith and others who had been treated with these punishments filed suit against the prison in 1974. He received four million dollars in a civil suit against the facility with 23 other prisoners receiving a settlement of eight million dollars. Although the consequences of the riot caused prison reform to take place, the prison remains a hard line prison with tough restrictions on inmates who are considered to be some of the most dangerous (Danver, 2011). The question is if they are dangerous because of the conditions imposed and the new construction of social living that they are forced to conform under. The Attica Correctional Facility of today is only moderately... The term respect is one that is very important in the construction of social order in the Attica Correctional facility. The facility is known for housing some of the worst criminals in the United States, leaving the structure for abuse open from both inmates and guards where people have largely forgotten about those who enter into those walls. Respect, therefore, is won through violent and physical confrontation. This allows those in the culture within the walls to determine who has status and who will be the weaker section of the population. While male dominated codes and structures are at the core of the hierarchy, there are some unique concepts in a prison that already has a great deal of structure. Male dominance is at the center of this construction of social order and at the core of male dominance is the need for having respect, showing respect, and earning respect. Some prisoners earn respect just to keep them safe while others earn it to gain power among their peers. The one solidarity that is common among all the prisoners is against the guards. From the evidence of the 1971 riot and the restrictions that are enforced on the behavior of men in the prison system that this nuances and subtleties of life in Attica are often built upon the fragile amounts of freedom they are given. Without the development of structures of respect, they would be lost to the oppression that the guards and the system impose.