Rick Harcrow - Inside the Attica Prison Riot: What Really Happened | Part 1

They used a correctional officer's head as a battering ram. 43 people died at Attica. This is what actually happened — from someone who worked those walls for 37 years.

The Attica Prison Riot began September 9, 1971, and lasted four days. When it was over, 43 people were dead — 39 of them killed during the state's retaking of the facility. Officers had warned the superintendent weeks in advance. He refused to act. On the day of the riot, veteran COs called in sick. Everyone knew what was coming.

Rick Harcrow spent 37 years as a correctional officer at Attica — 30 of them working directly in the shadow of that riot. In Part 1, he breaks down the conditions that made it inevitable: 2,200 inmates crammed into a prison built for 1,200, one roll of toilet paper a month, and a bureaucracy that ignored every warning. He walks through the triggering event — worn-down gate keys that opened both locks — the seizure of Times Square, the death of CO William Quinn, Sergeant Cunningham's on-camera plea to the governor days before he was killed, and the catastrophic "Turkey Shoot": approximately 1,500 rounds fired into a 100-by-100-yard space packed with hundreds of people.

Nearly half of Attica's 2,200 inmates were serving time for murder or manslaughter. Part 2 covers what happened to Rick personally, the violence the state tried to bury, and what 10,000 corrections officers finally did to force the state to listen.

Timestamps:

0:00 — William Quinn: Used as a Human Battering Ram
1:00 — Rick Harcrow: 37 Years Behind Attica's Walls
5:00 — Overcrowded and Ignored: Conditions Before the Riot
8:28 — Officers Warned the Superintendent — He Refused
13:00 — The Triggering Event: How Inmates Seized Control
26:24 — Four Days of Hostages, Negotiations, and a Governor Who Wouldn't Show
32:20 — The "Turkey Shoot": 1,500 Rounds in a 100×100-Yard Space

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🔗 Part 2: Coming Soon!

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Keywords:
Attica prison riot 1971, correctional officer story, William Quinn Attica, prison riot hostages, Nelson Rockefeller Attica, Attica retaking, New York state prison history, CO career prison, Sergeant Cunningham Attica, prison reform corrections, maximum security prison officer, Heroes Behind the Badge podcast