PREFACE

The 1980 riot at the Penitentiary of New Mexico (PNM) was a traumatic and dramatic event with significant implications for all major stakeholders. This prison insurrection lasted for two and a half days and resulted in the death of at least 33 inmates, and serious injuries to at least one hundred and as many as 400 inmates. A dozen correctional officers were taken hostage, and each suffered from major psychological damage. The penitentiary itself was substantially demolished. The Correctional Officers who were taken hostage during the uprising were treated as prisoners by the rioting inmates. In a sense, they were imprisoned by their captors, without being found guilty of any crime. These Correctional Officers were literally incarcerated without conviction. This book attempts to describe and document the conditions leading to the riot, while ascertaining the specific causes as well as the contributing factors that resulted in the insurrection. Individual chapters are devoted to a detailed description of the prison and its administration, the correctional officers, and the inmates. A number of forewarnings about the imminence of a riot will be considered, along with an investigation into the security lapses believed to have facilitated the takeover of the prison by inmates. The beginning of the riot, the riot itself, and the end of the riot are the subject of individual chapters. The official response of the PNM administration and the New Mexico Corrections Department is described, along with consideration of the significance of the riot and analysis of the short and long-term consequences. The administration of PNM and the New Mexico Corrections Department had failed to comply with a federal consent decree and a follow-up partial consent decree, leading the inmates to believe that the suboptimal conditions they were enduring would not be voluntarily addressed by the management of the prison. The riot can be characterized as a media event, designed to attract media, public, legal and governmental attention and to force the PNM administration to negotiate with them. It is noteworthy that there was no attempt to escape from the prison by inmates during the insurrection, and that none of the correctional officers held hostage were killed. The inmate’s motive behind the riot was not to escape or engage in senseless violence, but to compel the prison management to comply with court-ordered improvements in the way that inmates were treated and in the administration of the penitentiary. A chapter describes in detail the negotiation process that resulted from the riot. The investigation into the insurrection is documented, as is the law enforcement response to the riot, the medical treatment of inmates and hostages, and the role of the media in covering the story and facilitating the conclusion of the riot. The postriot activity at the penitentiary and the post-riot treatment of the correctional officers held hostage are discussed in separate chapters. The implications of the riot for the families and loved ones of the inmates and correctional officers are the subject of individual chapters. A chapter investigates the paranormal phenomena resulting from the riot, and another describes the tour of the penitentiary. This book provides a thoroughly comprehensive description and documentation of all aspects of the PNM riot, including activity before, during and after the event. Based upon official government documents, secondary source and media accounts of the riot, blogs, scholarly analyses and interviews, this research describes the riot in detail to explain why it occurred, as well as salient subsequent developments. An important element of this book is the close cooperation and contributions of one of the correctional officers held hostage during the riot. Perhaps the most tragic fact about this prison riot is that it was completely preventable. This catastrophic event could and should have been averted. Certain of the personnel, policies and practices of the New Mexico Corrections Department and the Penitentiary of New Mexico set in motion a series of events leading to the riot. Significantly suboptimal conditions caused by a burgeoning prison population were exacerbated by the implementation of ill-advised PNM policies and questionable management procedures. The real story of the 1980 riot at the Penitentiary of New Mexico is not a tale of evil inmates acting out in a very dramatic manner. Rather, it is a cautionary tale of the consequences of treating inmates in abusive and excessively punitive ways. The state corrections department and the administration of the prison chose not to comply with federal consent decrees requiring them to rectify a considerable number of illegal prison practices. A subset of the inmate population attempted to improve prison conditions through litigation, resulted in the consent decrees. When they realized that prison officials had no intention of complying with the terms of the court orders, these prisoners decided that they had to draw attention to their plight by staging an event guaranteed to attract the attention of the prison administration, the state corrections department, and the media.