More than 40 years after the nation’s bloodiest prison rebellion, newly released documents contain accounts, some never before seen publicly, from National Guardsmen and a doctor who said they saw injured inmates beaten with clubs and others with wounds indicating they were tortured as state police and guards retook control of Attica.
The documents released Thursday, two years after Attorney General Eric Schneiderman sought the disclosure, say several witnesses to brutal crimes against prisoners weren’t contacted or interviewed by criminal investigators. They show apparent violent crimes by authorities, described by neutral witnesses, after police and guards fatally shot 29 inmates and 10 hostages and 1,300 inmates surrendered after their riot and five-day standoff at the maximum-security prison in western New York.
