Panel Descriptions

Looking Back: The Attica Uprising and Aftermath

Scholars of the Attica Uprising and individuals with first-hand experiences of the Uprising and its impact will recall the events leading up to the Uprising, reconstruct the historical timeline, specifically discuss their role in the events that followed the Uprising, and discuss the significance of those events to prisoners, corrections, and to communities four decades later.

Malcolm Bell, Former Special Assistant Attorney General (NYS Attica Investigation)
Arthur O. Eve, Former NYS Assemblyman & Negotiator/Observer
Elizabeth Gaynes, Executive Director, Osborne Association
Melvin Marshall, 1971 Attica Inmate
Dee Quinn Miller, Director, Forgotten Victims of Attica
Michael Smith, Attica CO in 1971 and Hostage
Heather Ann Thompson, Professor of History, Temple University
Teresa A. Miller, Professor of Law, University at Buffalo (moderator)

Prisons, Empowerment, and Resistance

What is the relationship between the Black Power Movement that began in California prisons and political consciousness among prisoners in New York State? How do prisoners empower themselves in a prison system that has largely abandoned rehabilitation? Where is common humanity found within institutions marked by a history of inhumane treatment? How do officers charged with the care, custody, and control of prisoners see themselves as victims, and does this perception fuel violence toward prisoners? This panel takes on questions of power, empowerment, violence, resistance, and transformation among prisoners, guards, and prison administrators.

Robert Clark, Professor of Anthropology, Mansfield University of Pennsylvania
Flores Forbes, Associate VP, Strategic Policy and Program Implementation, Columbia University
Doran Larson, Professor of English, Hamilton College
Joshua Page, Professor of Sociology, University of Minnesota
Devonya Havis, Professor of Philosophy, Canisius College (moderator)

Attica, Prisons & the Media

Prisoner advocates commonly see the media as working against prison reform by constructing and reifying images of prisoners as thugs and savages, and representing prisoners at their worse (e.g. in SHU confinement, gang-involved). Correctional administrators often see the media as breeding contempt for prison administrators and guards by focusing only on the latest scandal, or corruption charge. Despite being on opposite sides of the bars, both inmates and guards appear to share the same frustration with television and the press. This panel brings together three individuals whose work lies at the tension between media coverage of prisons that boosts the rating and sells papers, and more humanitarian representations of the Keepers and the Kept: an historian who wrote her dissertation on the media’s role in the negotiations and in the aftermath of the mass, an investigative reporter who covered the "prison beat" in Western New York for many years; and a law professor who videotaped interviews with inmates, correctional officers, civilians, and prison administrators inside Attica Correctional Facility for two years.

Gary Craig, Investigative Reporter for the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle
Theresa Lynch, Historian, University of New Hampshire Manchester
Teresa Miller, Professor of Law, University at Buffalo Law School
Theodore Kirkland, Former NYS Parole Commissioner

Prison Violence in Feminist Perspective: Gender, Sexuality, and Race

This panel examines and critiques masculinized, racialized narratives (both historical and current) of prison violence in the United States by exploring the phenomenon of prison violence in its many dimensions (e.g. guard on inmate, inmate on inmate, guard on guard, psychological, physical, sexual). This panel further demonstrates that by looking at prison violence through the lens of gender and sexuality, as well as race) a broader understanding of the pervasiveness of violence in prison emerges.

Anthony P. Farley, James Campbell Matthews Distinguished Professor of Jurisprudence, Albany Law School
Regina Kunzel, Professor of History, University of Minnesota
Gabrielle Prisco, Director of Juvenile Justice Project, Correctional Association of New York
Stephanie L. Phillips, Professor of Law, University at Buffalo (moderator)

Past Demands, Current Concerns: How Far Have We Come?

This panel re-visits the demands formulated by prisoners during the Uprising that served as the basis for negotiations with the governor’s office and state prison officials, and probes the continuing significance of these demands in light of current prison conditions in New York State. Panelists will consider the state of prisoner education, rehabilitation, inmate-officer relations, and inmate political expression, among other topics.

Jack Beck, Director, Prison Visiting Project, Correctional Association of New York
Jim Conway, Retired Superintendent, Attica Correctional Facility (2003-2010)
Chuck Culhane, Erie County Prisoners' Rights Coalition
Karen Murtagh-Monks, Executive Director, Prisoners Legal Services of New York
Nan Haynes, Lecturer in Law, UB Law School, and Member, Erie County Community Corrections Advisory Board (moderator)

Moving Forward: Prison Reform in an Era of Mass Incarceration and Fiscal Crisis

These panelists explore the legacy of the Attica Uprising four decades afterward, and discuss prospects for reform in the current era of fiscal crisis and mass incarceration including prison downsizing, sentencing reforms, the reemergence of rehabilitation as a penal objective, and meaningful reentry.

Jeffrion L. Aubry, NY State Assemblyman, 35th A.D. of Queens County (2002-present)
Soffiyah Elijah, Executive Director, Correctional Association of New York
Anthony P. Farley, James Campbell Matthews Distinguished Professor of Jurisprudence, Albany Law School
Michael Mushlin, Professor of Law, Pace University Law School
Thomas Terrizzi, prison litigation practitioner (moderator)