Negotiations Begin
Talks to end the riot stalled throughout the first 24 hours. This was because neither the inmates nor the state had a single spokesperson. Eventually, inmates made 11 general demands concerned with basic prison conditions like overcrowding, inmate discipline, educational services and improving food. The prisoners also demanded to talk to independent federal officials and members of the news media.
The officers who were held hostage were released after inmates met reporters. Some of the officers had been protected by inmates, but others had been brutally beaten and raped. Seven officers suffered severe injuries.
- One was tied to a chair. Another lay naked on a stretcher, blood pouring from a head wound. (Journal reporter)
Negotiations broke off again in the early hours of Sunday morning with state officials insisting no concessions had been made.
Read more about this topic: New Mexico State Penitentiary Riot
Famous quotes containing the word negotiations:
“But always and sometimes questioning the old modes
And the new wondering, the poem, growing up through the floor,
Standing tall in tubers, invading and smashing the ritual
Parlor, demands to be met on its own terms now,
Now that the preliminary negotiations are at last over.”
—John Ashbery (b. 1927)