New Mexico State Penitentiary Riot

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The New Mexico State Penitentiary Riot, which took place on February 2 and February 3, 1980 in the Penitentiary of New Mexico south of Santa Fe, was one of the worst prison riots in the history of the American correctional system: 33 inmates were killed, more than 100 inmates were treated for injuries, and seven of 12 guards taken hostage were treated for injuries suffered during beatings and rapes. Suprisingly, amid all the chaos, none of the guards were killed.

[edit] Contributing Causes to the Riot

Multiple causes led to the riot and the entire fault did not lay with the inmates; the correctional staff were also to blame. Their lack of training, as well as a shortage of staff, overcrowding, a lack of consistent policies, and poor communication between the staff and inmates were some of the key contributing factors. Others included the lack of programs (educational and rehabilitative), poor quality food, and failure to separate prisoners. Prisoners and staff had been in turmoil because of these factors.

The correctional staff used a form of manipulation they called the "snitch game." They would label a certain prisoner as a snitch if he did not cooperate. The prisoner would then be stigmatized and subject to abuse by fellow inmates. This would hopefully lead to the labeled prisoner ending up hating those prisoners who abused him, and "snitch" their information to the heads of the penitentiary. This also hampered attempts to get actual information from inmates.

There were 1,136 inmates in New Mexico State Prison on the night of the riot February 2, 1980, living in a space that was designed for nine hundred (Schmallger and Smykla, 2001 McGraw/Hill Companies, Page 317).

[edit] New Mexico Prison Riot

The riot took place on the morning of Saturday, February 2nd 1980, when guards entered dormitory E-2 on the south side of the prison. Four out of fifteen guards were taken hostage during the first few minutes. One of the guards fled and left behind keys to open most of the prison gates (Holmes). Inmates began to come out of the prison seeking refuge at the fence where the National Guard had assembled. Some guards were released, but others were taken hostage and assaulted. At the start of the riot, eighty prisoners who wanted no part of the disturbance fled to the baseball field. They were later joined by hundreds of other inmates who escaped the violence within the prison.

Thirty-two inmates were tortured, dismembered, decapitated, or burned alive by fellow inmates (Schmallger and Smykla, Copyright 2001 McGraw/Hill Companies page 317). Twenty-three of prisoners that were killed were housed in the protective custody unit, in other words, the "snitches". One inmate died later from riot-related injuries. Thus, bringing the total to Thirty-Three.

. Over two hundred inmates were treated for injuries sustained during the riot (Mark Colvin in Descent into Madness by Mike Rolland, 1997 Anderson Publishing Company).

Fifteen correctional officers were on duty the night of the riot. Twelve were taken hostage, and seven of the twelve were beaten, stabbed, burned, or sodomized. However, none of the hostages were killed (Mark Colvin in Descent into Madness by Mike Rolland, 1997 Anderson Publishing Company).

[edit] Results of the Riot

Some changes occurred due to an inmate lawsuit filed prior to the riot, which forced federal oversight of New Mexico prison for two decades (Gallagher).