Abstract
The Uprising at the Attica Correctional Facility in September 1971 was a system-changing event for the New York State Department of Corrections. The impact of the uprising is not only the effect it had on inmate lives and conditions at Attica, but also the effect it had on the corrections officers and the Department of Corrections as a whole. The problems that had been affecting the department of corrections for years were now tangible, because inmates were acting on their unhappiness. The question became: how exactly did this uprising effect not only the corrections officers involved in the event, but also the officers who would work in the wake of the uprising? The papers of Council 82 (the council created to represent the interests of municipal employees, mainly corrections officers) were instrumental in determining the effects and the changes created to make the prisons in New York safer for both the corrections officers and the inmates. In the end, New York State offered money and programs to increase training for officers, increase inmate conditions, and make the prisons safer for both officers and inmates. Attica is the catalyst for change within the prison system of New York State.
