Overcrowding, filthy and degraded facilities, untrained and low-paid guards, bad communication and other factors had combined to sow the seeds of the revolt.Īlthough the riot’s death toll was far short of the 39 who died in the Attica Prison riot in New York two years earlier, it gutted most of Big Mac and reinforced claims in a lawsuit filed the previous year that engulfed the Oklahoma Department of Corrections for decades to come. The McAlester riot also highlighted issues that had been brewing for years behind the gates of the state’s oldest prison, built in 1908.
Prison mayhem how to#
Total damage was estimated at more than $20 million.Īn outside consultant brought in by the governor to advise on how to rebuild the facility called the uprising “one of the most disastrous events in American correctional history.” When the siege ended three days later, three inmates were dead, more than 20 people had been injured, and 24 buildings had been destroyed. The governor, David Hall, implored rioters to give up and met with some to hear their demands. The National Guard and Oklahoma Highway Patrol were called in. On July 27, 1973, “Big Mac,” as it’s commonly called, became a mini-hell of fire and black smoke, stabbing victims, beatings, hostages and looting. Forty years ago this month, a pent-up rage among inmates at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester erupted in murderous violence.
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