Prison Rot

By Marilyn Penn

"On Easter Sunday in April, 1993, 450 prisoners, spurred on partially by Black/Muslim instigators, fomented a riot in the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility in Lucasville, Ohio. Their demands included: amnesty for the riot; the right to wear Muslim caps and attire; the provision of halal food; the cessation of integrated cells and the more general demands for better service, i.e. more phone calls and visitors. At the end of the eleven day riot, after nine inmates had been beaten to death and one guard strangled by the rioters, the state of Ohio agreed to review prisoner complaints and institute appropriate changes. It cost more to repair the $40 million dollars worth of damage to the prison than it had cost to build it."

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