#Prison riot

[louis-sj]

Bizarre Prison Procedure

Forced Thorazine to place inmates in a Full Body Plaster Cast

Others who were more vio­lently suicidal were treated to one of the most bizarre procedures in prison his­tory, a plaster body cast from neck to ankles, with holes for defecation and urination. This restraint was developed in 1978 by the penitentiary's medical director as an alternative to drug therapy. As he explained to the team of forensic consultants, he thought it was "probably more humane to physically restrain peo­ple" than to make them suffer the affects of some tranquilizers. His premise is voided by the fact that Thorazine had to be forced down a fit-throwing convict's throat to get him into the body cast. Dr. Orner spoke about his use of these casts at a meeting of the American Medical Association's Conference on Health Ser­vices in Correctional Facilities in November of 1979. He told his audience that he was using body casts as a method of crisis intervention. "And he did it in almost a bragging tone—he sounded like he thought it was terrific," one listener, an attorney with the New York Legal Aid Society, commented. "I asked him how he got people into it, considering that they would be supposedly violent people in some kind of episode, and he said that if it took six officers, eight officers, it didn't matter how many it took to hold the guy down." But according to an interview with an ex-inmate who was placed in a body cast in the summer of 1979, it was Thorazine, not guards, that subdued him:

I was brought down to the hospital in handcuffs, and thrown off into the strip cell a number of times. Finally they upped and stuffed me off in that oP cast situation… But before they did that, they poured Thorazine down my throat. Held my jaws right there, and just poured it right in my face because I didn't want to take it. Well.. .after I got in that full body cast, I busted all out of that, man, because I was hysterical. Scared. Somebody's trying to kill me…"

From: The Hate Factory A First-Hand Account of the 1980 Riot at the Penitentiary of New Mexico, page 65, ISBN-10: 0-595-36669-4 (pbk) by Georgelle Hirliman.

[anitaradix]

What is wrong with people?

In Philadelphia last night, a bunch of people break into an Apple Store and take all of the iPhone 15s.

With sirens blaring, they then run out only to realize that all of the iPhones have been disabled and they may be being tracked.

So what do they do next?

They begin breaking all of the iPhones that they just took, while being filmed by people with other iPhones. One such video can be seen below.

Some people just aren't very bright. Who do you blame?

[if-you-fan-a-fire]

On November 14, 1929, a serious prison strike nearly broke out at the Saskatchewan Penitentiary in Prince Albert. Only by the narrowest of chances was the plot discovered by staff and the strike averted. The strike leaders were two convicts, Ashton and Jones, who referred to themselves in furtive notes as “sweethearts” and “lovers” - they dreamed of escaping to be together. Two hatchet-men from Ottawa were sent to clean up, senior officers of the penitentiary were dismissed, and the whole affair hushed up, save for a few stories in the newspapers. This is part of my rambling, fully informal, draft attempts to understand the origins and course and impact of the 1930s ‘convict revolt’ in Canada, and other issues related to criminality and incarceration Canadian history. (More here.)

Saskatchewan Penitentiary was, at the time, the newest federal penitentiary in Canada. Opened in 1911, to replace the territorial jail at Regina, parts of it were still under construction in 1929. UBC penologist C. W. Topping praised Sask. Pen as “the finest in the Dominion,” with supposedly ‘modern’ features in the cell-block and workshops, including an up-to-date brick factory that produced for federal buildings in the Prairies. Discipline and the organization of staff and inmates was functionally the same as everywhere else in Canada, however: forced labour, the silence system, limited privileges and entertainments, a semi-military staff force, and an isolated location far from major population centres.

The majority of inmates were sentenced from Saskatchewan and Alberta, but throughout the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s, Saskatchewan Penitentiary was used as an overflow facility from overcrowded Eastern prisons. In April 1929, dozens of mostly malcontent prisoners were transferred from Kingston Penitentiary. A “row” was expected with these men, but they were not closely watched or segregated from the main population. In November 1929, there were 430 prisoners at Saskatchewan Penitentiary – almost 60 were from Kingston.

The staff at Saskatchewan Penitentiary were warned on the morning of November 14, 1929, by a ‘stool pigeon’ that all work crews (called gangs) would refuse to leave their places of work “until all their demands were met with.” The stool pigeon had no idea who the ringleaders were or the demands, but the Deputy Warden, Robert Wyllie, ordered his officers to keep “a sharp lookout” for suspicious actions. Over 70 prisoners were working outside the walls in two large groups - building a road and laying sewage pipe - and they were supposed to be the epicentre of the strike. Indeed, the whole day of the 14th staff had observed them talking and passing hand gestures. Other warnings came in throughout the day, so Wyllie ordered the penitentiary locked down and the next day interviewed several inmates at random who confessed they had no idea how word about the strike leaked out. For reasons we’ll get into, they were "amazed at being locked in their cells" and surprised by the swift reaction from the Deputy Warden. During the morning of the 15th, one man named Ford was strapped 24 times for attempting to incite a disturbance in his cell block. Noise and shouting echoed throughout the ranges.

Prisoners working on a building foundation at Saskatchewan Penitentiary, c. 1927 In a state of growing panic, Wyllie first phoned Warden W. J. McLeod, on medical leave since September and so sick he could barely answer the phone. Wyllie then telegraphed Ottawa in a vague way, indicating a “serious situation” and asking for someone to come and take charge. Unsure of what was going on, the Superintendent of Penitentiaries, W. St. Pierre Hughes, dispatched five trusted officers from Manitoba Penitentiary, summoned the nearest RCMP detachment, and ordered his personal hatchet-man, Inspector of Penitentiaries E. R. Jackson, to proceed to Prince Albert and take charge. Jackson would be accompanied by R. M. Allan, Structural Engineer, who had worked at Saskatchewan Penitentiary for a decade in the 1910s and "who knew the prison from long experience."

Almost everything in the historical record about this episode comes from Jackson and Allan’s investigation. Their personalities and prerogatives colour completely the available accounts. They were not great record keepers. They were, like many civil servants of the era, bitchy gossips. Both men were known as severe disciplinarians. Jackson, though only appointed as an Inspector in 1924, had become an indispensable figure to Superintendent Hughes. Jackson would be sent to institutions that Hughes viewed as insufficiently following his regulations, or where inmate unrest posed a problem. Jackson was sent to handle a riot at St. Vincent de Paul Penitentiary in December 1925, ordering a brutal round of lashings against accused agitators. He headed the British Columbia Penitentiary for a year and a half when Hughes fired the warden on spurious ground.

It was at B.C. Pen that Jackson met Allan, then the Chief Industrial Officer, and the two would work together closely not just at Prince Albert but also in the construction and opening of Collin’s Bay Penitentiary in Kingston. Jackson also was acting warden at Kingston Penitentiary in summer 1930. One KP lifer testified in 1932 that Jackson was “a mean son of a bitch” who ordered draconian punishments for relatively minor offences. Allan would himself become warden of Kingston Penitentiary in mid-1934, and held that position until 1954.

In short, these were not men sympathetic to prison officers they viewed as incompetent or remotely curious about inmate complaints. Their investigation was about establishing blame and getting things back to ‘normal.’ They concurred with Hughes that "men never rebel where there is a tight grip retained of them by management." There is some truth to this, as sociologist Bert Useem has repeatedly argued in his work on American prison riots: a ruthless but effective and well organized prison staff is likely to stop even the best organized prisoner protest.

In a strictly hierarchical, patrimonial system like an early 20th century penitentiary, where all authority rests with a few men at the top, failures of leadership are often critical. This is a factor often overlooked in popular and academic histories of prisoner resistance and riots (rightly so, perhaps, as we should focus on the actions of the incarcerated, nor their jailers). Of course, strikes and riots in prisons, as elsewhere, never just happen – as Hughes himself noted, this “must have been developing for sometime - [revolts] never occur in a day or two."

This photo shows the chief officers involved in this event. From left to right: Saskatchewan Penitentiary Deputy Warden R. Wyllie and Warden W. J. Macleod, Superintendent of Penitentiaries W. S. Hughes, Accountant G. Dillon, Inspector of Penitentiaries E. R. Jackson.

Jackson quickly fixed blamed on Deputy Warden Wyllie. They were "very much surprised by the lack of initiative" of Wyllie, who seemed to have been cowed by the fifty men working on the outside that had tried to strike. This despite the presence of almost a dozen armed officers nearby! Wyllie had had a nervous breakdown from stress, and had allowed, in Jackson’s eyes, a “lack of efficiency and discipline” to pervade the prison. He was "indecisive" in giving punishments at Warden’s Court, causing “the inmates to gloat over and ridicule the officers…" Inmates charged with fighting, insolence, or swearing at officers were warned or reprimanded, the least severe punishment for such severe infractions of the rules. Several officers felt that “there was no use of reporting the inmates” and so they "closed their eyes to a lot of infractions." Another officer thought that since September 1929 "inmates had became cocky … would laugh in the my face and...tell me to report him when he liked...for it would do no good." This situation was very similar to Kingston Penitentiary before the riot in October 1932, and, indeed, typified the crisis of the 1970s in federal prisons as well.

The November 14-15 disturbance was actually not the first strike episode at Saskatchewan Penitentiary that year. There had been unrest or talk of strikes among the prisoners since early September, with a general atmosphere of defiance and mockery of authorities. Many inmates resisted by going “through the motion of working" but not actually completing tasks. There had been a work refusal in late September, and two other strikes or work refusals in the middle of October. In these cases Wyllie intervened personally, but did not investigate, punish the strikers, or rectify the situation. There are not even reports on file about these events, and the record of reports against inmates for violating rules bears out this feeling that prisoners would “have their own way” and no ‘effective’ action would be taken against their rebellions. That is, effective by the standards of guards, who expected their commands to be obeyed absolutely.

Few demands were discovered – or least Jackson did not think the ones he turned up were worth elaborating on. There seemed to have been general opposition to the Steward's department – the “grub” was satisfactory, but apparently not distributed fairly, according to the inmates. The Steward and Deputy Warden had allowed inmates to place “special instructions” for their meals, and they would shout out their orders like they were at a diner, or exchanged their tickets to swap meals. The queued, single file, food line, with no talking and the same meal for everyone, had disappeared, and restoring this system was Jackson’s first act when he took over. Of course, food in prisoner protests stands in for more than just a meal, while also representing a very basic need that is one of the few things to look forward to during days of monotonous labour.

Much of the unrest centred on certain work crews, whose officers were resented, and communication with family, better work arrangements, socializing, access to newspapers, all are mentioned in passing in the investigation files. The “Kingston boys” were also the loudest supporters or organizers of the strikes, and they apparently resented being exiled to Saskatchewan. At least one inmate, Radke, told other inmates he wanted the strike to force a Royal Commission to investigate the prison. This kind of demand would be repeated again and again in 1932 and 1933 during prison riots across Canada.

Cell block in 1930 at Saskatchewan Penitentiary. The beds in the corridors are due to severe overcrowding.

George Ashton was singled out as one of the organizers of the abortive strike. Serving a term for armed robbery, he was one of the Kingston transfers. On November 15, 1929, he was caught trying to throw a letter away. This letter is addressed to another inmate who he had hoped to escape with. Ashton, "a troublesome, Smart Alec kid,” was sentenced to be shackled for ten days to his cell bars and to spend sixty days in isolation. Typical of Jackson’s more ‘effective’ regime.

Ashton’s note was addressed to his 'Pal', Allen, alias Bertram Allen Jones. Both worked in different work crews labouring outside the walls. Ashton’s letter to Jones identifies him as his sweetheart and lover, and promised that "he'll not get into trouble again because of these screws...I will sincerely try to refrain from letting my emotions run riot....My nature is not one which will allow me to lay down and be trodden upon forever without making some squawk." Ashton indicated he wanted to "make the time elapsing between your release and our reunion as sort as possible." He asked how Jones’ time was going, and ended by expressing his longing and desire to be with Jones:

"OH hawt dawg mamma won't we make up for the time of our separation??? Sweetheart I'll be loving you..." Say what's the answer to that companionate [sic] marriage idea? Thinking of accepting or am I such a damn bothersome person that your going to turn me down?.....there'll be a time when we're happy and gay (in each other arms).”

This was apparently one of many letters the two had exchanged, and contrary to the usual arrangements of wolves and punks in early 20th century prisons, where older men ‘protect’ younger inmates, often to extract sexual favours, this was apparently a consensual and sincere relationship. Not as uncommon as might be expected, of course, but it’s unusual to find such boldly expressed desire and love in this period of the archival record. Of course, Hughes thought this letter confirmed that Ashton was "a low bestial sort." Jones was identified as one of the other ringleaders, and he and Ashton had been seen talking to each other and making hand gestures several times in the months leading up to their strike attempt.

Who these men were and what happened to them after their time in prison I don’t know, yet.

Transcript of Ashton's letter to Jones, the only part of their correspondence that survives today

Inspector Jackson stayed in charge for another two months at Saskatchewan Penitentiary. An attempt to start on insurrection on November 20, 1929, was broken by strapping four of the leaders: “since then the Prison is absolutely quiet." Always full of himself, Jackson included letters of thanks from officers who praised his leadership, including the prison doctor: "We were drifting badly, discipline had practically ceased...now we are back and a Prison once more." He felt satisfied that retiring Wyllie and Warden Macleod had solved the problem, and left Allan in charge starting in mid-December 1929.

While I have no doubt that Deputy Warden Wyllie was responsible for the growth of an inmate strike movement, I don’t believe it is purely a case of his incompetence allowing inmates to organize. Rather, he proved himself to be an open door to prisoners already planning protests, and his inability to act with the severity expected by prisoners and staff alike encouraged further protests. Like a lot of federal civil servants, Wyllie was likely promoted above his abilities, with his loyalty to Hughes, seniority, indispensability to superior officers, and local influence helping to further his career. This was Jackson’s trajectory as well, ironically – once Hughes retired in early 1932, Jackson was on the outs, transferred to clerical duties in Ottawa, and he was dismissed in December 1932 as part of the purge initiated of penitentiary officers by the new Superintendent.

Additionally, it is clear to me that the issues at Saskatchewan Penitentiary extended beyond one officer – and indeed blaming Wyllie absolved a bunch of other officers of corruption and incompetence. Serious issues in the Hospital, Kitchen, School, and Workshops, were identified by Allan when he took over, with trafficking and contraband in cigarette papers, pipes, lighters, smuggled cigarettes, photographs and letters widespread. The Boiler House, where “considerable contraband has been located,” had seven inmate workers, who laboured "without direct supervision...” These men resented the crackdown and refused to work in February 1930 – which revealed to Allan the danger of allowing inmates to have full control of the power plant of the penitentiary.

Allan fired the officer in charge of the boiler house, the hospital overseer, the storekeeper, and reprimanded other officers for failing to confiscate contraband items. Fake keys were found throughout the prison, likely to be used in escapes or smuggling. Inmates had been allowed for years to order magazines direct from the publisher – and did not have them passed through the censor. Another mass strike was attempted in January 1930, apparently to protest Allan cracking down on these deviations from the regulations. As always, it should be recalled that what the officers saw as corruption or smuggling against regulations were all activities that made 'doing time' easier.

Why care about this episode, beyond some of the points I’ve already raised? One aspect of historical study I am most interested in are the precursors to a major event - the struggles, organizing, movements, victories and defeats that (sometimes with hindsight, sometimes without) shape a more influential and decisive event. This is especially difficult when writing the history of prisoner resistance, which often appears a discontinuous history, full of gaps and seemingly sudden flare-ups. The 1930s were a decade of prison riots, strikes, escapes and protests in federal and provincial prisons, but obviously these did not arise from nothing. The 1929 strike attempt at Saskatchewan Penitentiary is a transitional event – similar to earlier strikes and protests going back to the late 19th century, but occurring at the very start of the Great Depression, a premonition of things to come.

[mus1g4]

Missouri State Penitentiary Riot Aftermath

Now THIS is old school at its best! Prison guards armed with rifles ready to kill any convict who stepped out of line!

And take a hard look at the six inmates in the last two photos! They were the ring leaders. That is how they were taken to local court for arraignment! Shackled arm in arm, wearing their state issued prison greys with convict numbers stamped on them!

If you want to cause a riot, then go for it! But, we are going to kick your ass afterwards if you live!

Hell Yes!

[coochiequeens]

Dozens of women are dead and the President of Honduras is not accepting any responsibility.

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras — A grisly riot at a women's prison in Honduras Tuesday left at least 41 women dead, most burned to death, in violence the country's president blamed on "mara" street gangs that often wield broad power inside penitentiaries.

Twenty-six of the victims were burned to death and the remainder shot or stabbed at the prison in Tamara, about 30 miles (50 kilometers) northwest of the Honduran capital of Tegucigalpa, said Yuri Mora, the spokesman for Honduras' national police investigation agency. At least seven inmates were being treated at a Tegucigalpa hospital.

"The forensic teams that are removing bodies confirm they have counted 41," said Mora.

Video clips shown by the government from inside the prison showed several pistols and a heap of machetes and other bladed weapons that were found after the riot. Honduran President Xiomara Castro said the riot was "planned by maras with the knowledge and acquiescence of security authorities." "I am going to take drastic measures!" Castro wrote in her social media accounts.

Prisoners belonging to the feared Barrio 18 gang reportedly burst into a cell block and shot other inmates or set them afire. Relatives awaiting news about inmates gathered outside the morgue in Tegucigalpa. They confirmed that inmates in the prison had told them they lived in fear of the Barrio 18 gang.

Johanna Paola Soriano Euceda was waiting for news about her mother Maribel Euceda, and sister, Karla Soriano. Both were on trial for drug trafficking, but were held in the same area as convicted prisoners. Soriano Euceda said they had told her on Sunday that "they (Barrio 18 members) were out of control, they were fighting with them all the time. That was the last time we talked."

Another group of dozens of anxious, angry relatives gathered outside the prison, located in a rural area about 20 miles (30 kilometers) from the capital. "We are here dying of anguish, of pain ... we don't have any information," said Salomón García, whose daughter is an inmate at the facility. Azucena Martinez, whose daughter was also being held at the prison, said "there are a lot of dead, 41 already. We don't know if our relatives are also in there, dead."

Julissa Villanueva, head of the country's prison system, suggested the riot started because of recent attempts by authorities to crack down on illicit activity inside prisons and called Tuesday's violence a reaction to moves "we are taking against organized crime." "We will not back down," Villanueva said in a televised address after the riot.

Gangs wield broad control inside the country's prisons, where inmates often set their own rules and sell prohibited goods. They were also apparently able to smuggle in guns and other weapons, a recurring problem in Honduran prisons."The issue is to prevent people from smuggling in drugs, grenades and firearms," said Honduran human rights expert Joaquin Mejia. "Today's events show that they have not been able to do that."

The riot appears to be the worst tragedy at a female detention center in Central America since 2017, when girls at a shelter for troubled youths in Guatemala set fire to mattresses to protest rapes and other mistreatment at the badly overcrowded institution. The ensuing smoke and fire killed 41 girls.The worst prison disaster in a century also occurred in Honduras, in 2012 at the Comayagua penitentiary, where 361 inmates died in a fire possibly caused by a match, cigarette or some other open flame. Tuesday's riot may increase the pressure on Honduras to emulate the drastic zero-tolerance, no-privileges prisons set in up in neighboring El Salvador by President Nayib Bukele. While El Salvador's crackdown on gangs has given rise to rights violations, it has also proved immensely popular in a country long terrorized by street gangs

[queerism1969]

Ask me why I walk around with an attitude two thousand years of pain, I was born to be mad at you Born as a radical You must think I'm Boo-Boo the fool I see how you move You try to play the savior but you are the dictator

[rodpower78]

1971 Attica prison uprising.

[justsayun]

Mix Tape

What's this world coming to? I'm all for women being all they can be. But please sometimes people need to stay in their lane. My wife and I have a road trip coming up. She out of the blue stated that she was putting together a mix tape for our trip. I gently mentioned how we were taking my car so I kinda had a say over the music. She then said how she put the money aside for our trip so she had music input privileges. (Do I need a mediator?) What's going on? (I feel so violated.) My wife's mix tape will be nothing but weird indie music things. I asked her to name some music from the mix tape. She said she was going to have some Cake and their greatest hits. (I love cake and pie, to eat not listen to.) She also likes this song Yeah Yeah Sure Sure from the B Roads. Plus something called Depression Disco. After I got blindsided with this mix tape bombshell I called my daughter and told her about it. She laughed and said: "Oh Dear Dad you've got problems." I think of music as a soothing escape during a long drive. I checked out some of my wife's songs and it's like listening in on a Prison Riot. I know I'll still get some Elton John and Foreigner in to listen to but my wife's mix tape is going to be rough. During the wedding I was told it was for better or worse. But this is next level stuff. I'm just planning if it gets to bad I'm going to have Darius Ruckers Wagon Wheel ready to play.

[youcalledsworld]

DP x DC prompt

The Justice League and Danny get thrown into an alien prison. Superman or the Flash was worried about Danny but he didn't seem to be that shocked about being in prison.

When one of them asked how he was so calm he just shrugged and told them it was not his first time. They then watched as Danny proceeded to cause a prison riot in order to escape.

[inmate-24601-911]

Get on the ground! A slight move, and you'll get bullets in your empty heads!

[if-you-fan-a-fire]

"WHY CONVICTS WEEP." Ottawa Journal. July 4, 1933. Page 6. ---- SAM BEHAN, convict, already serving "life and seven years" in Kingston Penitentiary, wept when a jury declared him not guilty of rioting at that institution. Disposition of his case is another proof of the fairness and impartial judgment which are the basis of the Canadian judicial system.

BEHAN in his charge to the jury delivered an impassioned oration, denouncing Canadian penitentiaries and holding up Sing Sing as an example of what prisons should be. "Humane treatment!" he said, ironically.

"Walk into Sing Sing prison any time and you'll hardly know you are in a penitentiary. You see men smoking and talking; they have all they want except their liberty. Only a couple of reports a month are made against men, and they must be serious. Inmates themselves discipline the place, and a new man coming in is warned by the convicts not to do anything to cause them to lose their privileges or it will be just too bad for him."

This sounds like the law-breaker's conception of the ideal prison. BEHAN might have added that the guests at Sing Sing enjoy sports, amateur theatricals, radio entertainments, to such an extent that, as he says, the place isn't like a penitentiary at all. The Canadian idea of a prison, and we think the sounder one, is of a place where crime is punished; where discipline, treatment fair but firm, impress the convict with the folly of his ways and convince him of the wisdom of changing them if he desires to stay outside the walls.

No doubt Canadian convicts are bitter as they consider the pleasant days of the fellows In Sing Sing, where a prisoner hardly knows he is being punished, with their own circumstances under the rules and conditions Canada makes for those who break her laws. One might suggest, perhaps, that men released in due course from the Canadian penitentiaries, if they feel they must continue their criminal professions, transfer their activities to New York State so that, if they are unlucky, Sing Sing and not Kingston will extend its hospitality.

[baalzebufo]

miscellaneous gideon related doodles ive been doing over the past few days bc my brainrot has set in and its unfortunately terminal. some things:

so ghost-eyes sticks around in gideons life, as do the other prison buddies of his. theyre actually a shockingly good influence. despite being willing to commit crimes whenever, they bring a sort of temperance to gideons more. insane thought processes that stops him from doing anything TOO horrible these days. ghost-eyes especially is his hench-uncle. hes a good egg

also some older gids doodles... he wasnt sure if the pines would ever want to hang out w him after the events of that summer but time smooths over some things. hes capable of being normal around her now but he'd be lying if he said he didnt still have a little flame in his heart when it came to mabel

also do you think he ever just remembers something he did as a kid and is like Hey What The Hell Was That About. because thats the funniest mental image to me. sitting up in bed and going 'ten years ago I made a giant robot'

what a life you live

[loulovingho]

Damn even swat’s prison riot episode deals with prisoner mistreatment like okay I see you

[kropotkindersurprise]

June 27/28/29, 2023 - Police stations, prisons, town halls, and banks burn across France after police executed 17-year old Naël M. during a traffic stop. [video]/[video]/[video]/[video]

[homoqueerjewhobbit]

Actually, the best part of being a "chosen one" is you don't have to send in a resume and write a coverletter. A magical scroll or mysterious stranger or flock of ravens just show up and give it to you.