New York State Special Commission on Attica ~ Attica Revisited

ATalking History Project

The McKay Commission

(New York State Special Commission on Attica) Hearings

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Robert B. McKay, Dean of New York University's Law School from 1967 through 1975, headed a citizens' blue-ribbon commission that investigated the 1971 Attica, N.Y., prison uprising. The commission met in Rochester, New York, and in New York City.

After dozens of hearings, McKay and his fellow commisioners concluded their work by criticizing New York State prison authorities and Governor Nelson A. Rockefeller. They chastized prison officials for their poor planning and their quick embrace of lethal methods to subdue rebelling prisoners; they criticized Rockefeller for his failure to visit the prison site before ordering an armed assault of the facility.

With the cooperation of the New York State Archives, we present here the entire record of the deliberations of the New York State Special Commission on Attica. We have digitized and encoded the reel-to-reel analog recordings of the Rochester Hearings (available at the State Archives) into both streaming RealMedia and MP3 formats. We have digitized the official transcriptions of hearing testimony into Adobe PDF file format. You may need to download a free Adobe Acrobat reader to read the text files. To obtain the reader, go to: http://www.adobe.com.

Commission Sessions and Summaries

Rochester Hearings ~ April 12, 1972 (Morning)

RealMedia files [28 kbps]:	part 1	part 2	part 3	part 4	part 5
RealMedia files [ISDN]:	part 1	part 2	part 3	part 4	part 5
MP3 files [128 kbps]:	part 1	part 2	part 3	part 4	part 5
PDF files:	part 1	part 2	part 3	part 4	part 5

Summaries and Witnesses:

Part 1: Audio, 16:13 Minutes. Rochester Public Hearings, transcript, pages 1-13. Robert B. McKay, Chairman, introduces the commission members, and states reasons for the creation of the commission. Arthur L. Liman, General Counsel, outlines the scope of the investigations and the rules and procedures that govern the hearings. Linman dicusses the research methods used by the commission before calling the first witness for examination. Liman is the primary examiner throughout the morning session. Note: The first twenty seconds of the audio is muffled.

Part 2: Audio, 21:05 Minutes. Rochester Public Hearings, transcript, pages 13-24. David Addison is the first witness called. A member of Liman's staff, Addison is examined by Liman about statistics concerning the prison populations at Attica.

Part 3: Audio, 36:30 Minutes. Rochester Public Hearings, transcript, pages 24-48. Addison continues his testimony. Liman examines Addison about the geographic and racial statistics of Attica inmates. Addison concludes his testimony with statistics about the correction officers at Attica.

Part 4: Audio, 26:30 Minutes. Rochester Public Hearings, transcript, pages 48-69. William Jackson, a former Attica prisoner, is called to testify about his life as a prisoner at Attica. Jackson details such topics as the layout of the prison, prison clothing, and daily life. He begins retelling the routines of a typical day at Attica starting with breakfast.

Part 5: Audio, 40:43 Minutes. Rochester Public Hearings, transcript, pages 69-99. Jackson continues his testimony. Liman examines Jackson about prison employment, visitation rights, and prices at the commissary. Judge Charles Willis narrates a film of Attica, and Liman corroborates details from the film with Jackson's experiences at Attica.

Rochester Hearings ~ April 12, 1972 (Afternoon)

RealMedia files [28 kbps]:	part 1	part 2	part 3	part 4	part 5
RealMedia files [ISDN]:	part 1	part 2	part 3	part 4	part 5
MP3 files [128 kbps]:	part 1	part 2	part 3	part 4	part 5
PDF files:	part 1	part 2	part 3	part 4	part 5

Summaries and Witnesses:

Part 1: Audio, 31:16 Minutes. Rochester Public Hearings, transcript, pages 99-122. Liman resumes his examination of Jackson. Jackson describes the fuctions of the parole board and the difficulties he experienced with it. Jackson discusses the types of relationships maintained between correctional officers and inmates.

Part 2: Audio, 21:51 Minutes. Rochester Public Hearings, transcript, pages 122-138. Liman completes his examination of Jackson, and commissioners Robert B. McKay, Amos Henix, Walter N. Rothschild, Jr., Amalia Guerrero, Mr. Brodsky, Dorothy Wadsworth, Burke Marshall, and William Wilbanks examine Jackson. The commisioners explore such topics as Jackson's relationship to African-American and Latino inmates and his opinions of racial and ethnic relations at Attica.

Part 3: Audio, 36:27 Minutes. Rochester Public Hearings, transcipt, pages 138-166. The commission calls Robert Matthews as a witness and David Addison examines him. Matthews tells the commission about his life before entering Attica prison. Matthews explains how prisoners entered into educational programs and obtained jobs at the prison.

Part 4: Audio, 34:29 Minutes. Rochester Public Hearings, transcipt, pages 166-190. Addison continues his examination of Matthews and they explore Matthews' involvement in the Muslim faith and the difficulties he experienced trying to observe Muslim dietary laws.

Part 5: Audio, 42:07 Minutes. Rochester Public Hearings, transcipt, pages 190-221. Note: The audio testimony is muffled and partially missing between pages 190 and 191 of the transcipt. Addison continues his examination of Matthews. Other commissioners question Matthews about issues concerning Muslim beliefs, the parole board, and legal advice.

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