Power to the People – 1970 NYC Jail Uprisings & Labor Unrest

Historical & Theoretical Framing

• Opening epigraph (C.L.R. James): when history is written correctly, what will amaze observers is the “moderation and long patience of the masses,” not their ferocity.
• 1970 seen as part of a global wave of revolt “on both sides of the bars.”
• Jails/prisons functioning as key institutions for maintaining a racial-capitalist social order; uprisings challenge that order directly.

1968-1970 – Mounting Pressures in NYC Jails

• Population spike & overcrowding
  • The Tombs (Manhattan House of Detention): $209\%$ capacity in early $1970$, rising to $212\%$ in July.
  • Cells: $6\,\text{ft}\times 8\,\text{ft}$ steel boxes; often triple or even quadruple celled (first-hand report by prisoners).
  • Rikers Island adolescent penitentiary: four tiers, $\approx 400$ teens.
• Material deprivation
  • Mattresses & blankets frequently unavailable or filthy.
  • Vermin-infested cells, shortage of soap, grossly inadequate medical care (e.g., man with a bullet lodged for $7$ months).
  • Food routinely described as “not fit for human consumption.”
• Cultural/educational neglect
  • Tombs library contents: $500$ copies of Dining Out in Any Language; $200$ copies of Coin Collector’s Guide; zero Spanish titles on Puerto Rico.
• Court-pen ordeal (city-wide)
  • Days spent in unventilated, garbage-strewn pens; temps high enough to drench clothes.
  • Little/no seating, medical attention, or food (new arrests could go $17$ h without eating).
  • High frequency of meaningless appearances or postponements → widely viewed as coercive plea strategy.

March 1970 – C-76 (Rikers) Hunger Strike & Work Stoppage

• Participants: $\sim1{,}500$ prisoners.
• Immediate grievances:
  • Cut in “good-time” credit from $10$ → $5$ days / month.
  • Overcrowding in new “state-of-the-art” C-76 building.
• Action
  • Four-day hunger strike & labor stoppage; first rebellion “in memory” on Rikers per Ops Director Anthony Principe.
  • Ended when Commissioner George McGrath met prisoners, acknowledged validity of demands, promised to forward petition.
• Ripple effect: same morning at The Tombs, kitchen workers delayed breakfast; $60$ prisoners refused lock-in (minor injuries during forced compliance).

COBA Militancy (Early 1970)

• Correction Officers’ Benevolent Association (COBA) under President Leo Zeferetti.
  • Conducted illegal slowdowns Feb-Mar 1970 demanding $+700$ guard positions.
  • Tactics: slow prisoner transport ⇒ paralysed courts, jail hospital, work details.
  • Part of broader “law-and-order” political ascendancy for uniformed unions (parallel to Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association under John Cassese).

Life & Violence Behind Bars – Jamal Joseph’s Testimony

• Youngest of the Panther 21; held in old Rikers penitentiary (now adolescent remand).
  • Protective custody cell: cramped, dirty, mice “like shoppers at a mall.”
  • General population: $4$ tiers, $400$ teens with charges from petty theft to murder; vast majority couldn’t afford bail.
• Prisoner-on-prisoner brutality
  • Observed stabbing with sharpened bedspring (figa) over cigarette debt.
  • Learned survival code vs sexual assault ("booty bandits").
  • Ultimately beat would-be rapist with tray; spent $\approx1$ month in solitary ("the bing") → then gained “respect.”
• Political organizing
  • Smuggled Panther literature inside legal papers.
  • Founded karate class → cadre of $\sim40$; rules: no juggling (usury), rape, hard drugs, or guard collaboration.
  • Cadre pooled commissary to create no-interest micro-loans & welcome kits → challenged existing “house gangs.”

July–August 1970 – Escalation at The Tombs

Pre-Rebellion Petition

• July 29: prisoners sent detailed petition to Mayor John Lindsay & Commissioner McGrath → no response.

Trigger Events

• Aug 8: Altercation (milk cup issue) between prisoner David Felder & guard → Felder removed; $\sim30$ Black prisoners seize $2$ white hostages until trust re-established.
• Aug 10 (Breakfast): $5$ guards taken hostage on 9th floor; barricade lasts $8$ h; windows broken; note tossed to street—“conditioned to live under worse drama than this.”

Core Grievances (as compiled by prisoners)

1. Excessive bail & preventive detention; year-plus pre-trial confinement.
2. Court pens cruelty & denied hearing time.
3. Inadequate counsel who push pleas.
4. Routine guard beatings & harassment of women visitors.
5. Vermin, unfit food, lack of law books, poor medical care, inadequate clothing.
6. Demand for complete amnesty for participants.

• Rhetoric: “We cannot allow it to continue.”

Political Consciousness & Unity

• Communications signed by “people of Cuba Puerto Rico Black and whites.”
• Organizing forces: Inmates Liberation Front (ILF) led by Victor Martinez.
  • Secret “classes” disguised as card games; handwritten Inmates Forum newsletter.
• Even white hostage William Hickey later testified to interracial solidarity.

Full-Scale Uprising (Aug 11–20)

• Aug 11: >800 prisoners on 4th, 5th, 7th, 8th floors seize $4$ more hostages.
  • Destruction: smashed 3-inch-thick security glass; hurled burning sheets, dead rats.
  • Outside: Youth Against War & Fascism (Workers World Party front) rally chanting “Bail is ransom.”
• 9th-floor delegates (previous rebels) sent by McGrath to mediate → rebuffed by new militants.
• Tear-gas assault regains partial control; hostages freed evening of Aug 11, but 4th-floor hold-outs remain until Aug 20 (no hostages).
• Coordinated actions elsewhere
  • Court-appearance boycott across Tombs + House of Detention for Men (Queens).
  • Bronx House of Detention: small fire & rebellion.
  • Rikers C-76: cafeteria disturbance.
• Symbols: clenched fists & “V” signs from shattered windows; bedsheet banner “POWER TO THE PEOPLE.”

Guard Counter-Offensive & Gains

• COBA mass meeting → threat of mass resignation if denied free rein to “shake down” facility.
• Concessions won:
  • Immediate tactical raid of 4th floor approved.
  • Back overtime pay; paid orientation & in-service training; new riot gear.
  • Transfer $670$ sentenced prisoners to NY State custody.
  • Rebel leaders (e.g., Victor Martinez) shipped to Branch Queens.
• Media friction: Press strike led to brawl between union camera operators & scabs while Mayor Lindsay spoke.

Political Fallout & Investigations

State Senate Hearings (Senator John R. Dunne) – Aug 24 →

• Forced DOC to produce prisoners for testimony; hearings disrupted by striking TV crews.
• Dunne recommendations:
  • Release all non-violent misdemeanants.
  • Issue summonses for future minor offenses.
• Prisoners affirm Tombs conditions equal preventive detention; McGrath calls bail question “a $\textit{touchy subject}$.”

Findings Against DOC & City

• Commissioner McGrath faulted for failing December 1969 agreement to relieve crowding by:
  • Transferring city prisoners to state; placing all sentenced men under state DOC; urgent hunt for new city facilities (e.g., Brooklyn Navy Yard barracks – no report filed).
• Chronic administrative vacancies; rotating managers ⇒ no institutional memory.
• McGrath’s ignorance (claimed Tombs had no stairs) used to show detachment (“even the inmates knew there was a stairway—mice use it”).
• Guard morale “very low”; warned superiors of impending riot—ignored.
• Concluding metaphor: men smashing iron table-legs through glass “not to escape, but to broadcast anguish.”

Guard Rank-and-File Wildcat (Sept 1970)

• Rikers sick-out (labelled “wildcat” by Zeferetti): left jails dangerously understaffed.
  • City promised $300$ new hires (half of COBA’s demand) within a day.
  • Sick-out continued a 2nd day, spread to Women’s House of Detention; stopped only after McGrath threatened paychecks.
• Significance: first time COBA rank & file openly defied both city and their own president—marks qualitative shift to militant labor politics within DOC.

Litigation – Rhem v. McGrath (Filed Sept 1970)

• Class-action by Legal Aid Society on behalf of prisoners.
• Claims: Tombs violates First, Sixth, Eighth, Fourteenth Amendments (speech, counsel, cruel & unusual punishment, due process/equal protection).
• McGrath’s reaction: dismissed revolt as result of ideology that romanticizes “bad guys,” yet publicly “welcomed” lawsuit for forcing issues to a head.

Key Actors & Organizations

• Prisoners’ formations: Inmates Liberation Front; Inmates Forum newsletter; karate cadre at Adolescent Remand.
• Correction unions: COBA (Leo Zeferetti); Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association (John Cassese).
• Political figures: Commissioner George McGrath; Mayor John V. Lindsay; State Sen. John R. Dunne; Congressman Edward Koch.
• Activist groups: Youth Against War & Fascism; Black Panther Party; Workers World Party.

Major Themes & Implications

• Racial justice: Overwhelmingly Black & Puerto Rican detainees; interracial solidarity grows during rebellion.
• Preventive detention vs bail: excessive bail weaponised; labelled a “touchy subject” by officials.
• Labor convergence: prisoner uprisings and guard work actions represent dual crises of authority inside penal institutions.
• Administrative incompetence: vacant posts, lost reports, leadership ignorance—structural, not incidental.
• Public perception: Establishment resisted framing events as political; prisoners & radicals insisted they were part of global anti-imperialist struggle.
• Legacy: Uprisings presage 1971 Attica rebellion; Rhem v. McGrath leads to long-running federal oversight & eventual shuttering of The Tombs for extensive renovation.

Numerical Snapshot & Timeline

• $1968–1970$ : at least three-fold national increase in prison rebellions.
• Feb 1970: COBA slowdown begins.
• Mar 4-8 1970: $1{,}500$-man C-76 hunger strike.
• Jul 29 1970: Petition to Lindsay/McGrath.
• Aug 8 1970: Felder incident.
• Aug 10–11 1970: Hostage-takings; full Tombs uprising >800 prisoners.
• Aug 11–20 1970: 4th-floor hold-out; broader citywide solidarity actions.
• Aug 24–Sept 2 1970: Dunne hearings.
• Sept 3 1970: Rikers guard wildcat; $300$ hires promised.
• Sept 9 1971: (context) Attica uprising – demonstrates trajectory set in 1970 NYC events.

Study Prompts

• Compare motives & methods of prisoner rebels vs COBA guards—how are they similar/different, and what does that reveal about state authority?
• Assess role of racial solidarity across Black, Puerto Rican, and white detainees in shaping the Tombs rebellion.
• Evaluate Dunne Committee’s findings: administrative failure vs structural racism & capitalism—where does responsibility lie?
• Analyze use of bail as preventive detention; connect to modern debates on cash bail reform.
• Explore ethical tension: prisoners resort to violence for survival (Jamal Joseph) vs systemic violence inflicted by conditions.