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THE 1980 SANTA FE PRISON RIOT · Inside The Criminal Mind

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  Speaker 1: Santa Fe Prison Riot America's most brutal uprising. The Santa
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  Speaker 1: Fe prison riot, which erupted on February second, nineteen eighty
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  Speaker 1: at the New Mexico State Penitentiary, remains one of the
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  Speaker 1: most violent and horrifying prison uprisings in US history. In
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  Speaker 1: just thirty six hours, thirty three inmates were killed, many
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  Speaker 1: of them savage and gruesome ways, and over two hundred
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  Speaker 1: were injured. The riot exposed not only the brutality that
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  Speaker 1: prisoners can inflict upon one another, but also the deep
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  Speaker 1: structural failures of the American prison system. The riot began
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  Speaker 1: in the early morning hours, when inmates, exploiting lack of
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  Speaker 1: security and architectural flaws, took control of the prison. They
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  Speaker 1: quickly overpowered guards, seized keys, and began moving from cell
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  Speaker 1: block to cell block. What followed was not just a protest,
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  Speaker 1: but a vengeful bloodbath. Some inmates used tools from the
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  Speaker 1: prison workshop, including blow torches and metal rods, to torture
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  Speaker 1: their rivals. Several victims were mutilated beyond recognition. Others were
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  Speaker 1: targeted for being informants or sex offenders. There was really
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  Speaker 1: no single organized agenda. The prison was vastly overcrowded, holding
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  Speaker 1: eleven hundred inmates and a facility designed for nine hundred,
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  Speaker 1: conditions were dire. Inmates were frequently locked down and denied
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  Speaker 1: adequate medical care. By the time state police and the
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  Speaker 1: National Guard regained control, the prison was in ruins. Much
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  Speaker 1: of the facility have been destroyed by fire and vandalism.
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  Speaker 1: The event prompted national attention and a series of investigations.
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  Speaker 1: Despite reforms that follow, the Santa Fe riot remains a
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  Speaker 1: chilling reminder of what happens when a prison system collapses
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  Speaker 1: under pressure. If you look at it psychologically, it's interesting,
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  Speaker 1: is the wired The riots displayed classic symptoms of de individuation,
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  Speaker 1: a state where individuals and groups lose self awareness and
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  Speaker 1: a sense of personal responsibility and the fog of a
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  Speaker 1: collective rage. No moral constraints collapse. This is what happens
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  Speaker 1: when also wear masks and when they go out to
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  Speaker 1: these public lootings and things of that nature. People will
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  Speaker 1: lose a lot of their moral constraints. When anonymity is present,
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  Speaker 1: this will increase quite a bit. Inmates who have not
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  Speaker 1: who might have not acted violently alone, found themselves swept
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  Speaker 1: into the violent fervor of the group. This is where
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  Speaker 1: we see a lot of mob mentality too. Social identity
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  Speaker 1: theory plays a role in prison culture. Identity is polarized
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  Speaker 1: between us and them, black and white type of thinking
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  Speaker 1: are also called splitting. In the world of psychodynamics, this
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  Speaker 1: in group outgroup the dynamic when intensified or prolonged, trauma
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  Speaker 1: resembment deprivation can justify extreme violence in the minds of aggressors.
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  Speaker 1: So there's a little bit of a psychological look at it.
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  Speaker 1: A tragic story over there at the Santa Fe prison
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  Speaker 1: riot