Attica: What's Going On Behind Prison Walls?

It took Heather Ann Thompson 13 years to uncover the real story of what had been going on at Attica Correctional.  Her book, Blood in the Water, offered the first comprehensive account of the Attica Prison uprising in 1971.  The protest, in which 1,300 prisoners took over the facility, was a cultural and political touchstone of the 1970's, but much of the story was covered up.  Attica is a public institution, but records are not easily accessible.  State official try hard to protect the institution, by not allowing the public to know what's going.  Thanks to investigative reporters like Heather, the truth is being revealed.

It turns out that a physician, Michael W. Brandriss, was looking for subjects for his study on leprosy.  He was able to obtain volunteers from Attica, by offering them a little extra money to spend at the commissary, and they signed up for the study, not knowing exactly what the test was for and how it could affect them.  Should they have been subjects for Dr. Brandriss' study?  No jury had sentenced them to being a guinea pig in any experiment relating to a disease as painful and disfiguring as leprosy.

What about the hundreds of corrections officers and civilian employees working at the prison who were exposed to the virus?  Prolonged close contact to people infected with the virus could cause one to get the virus.

This is not the first time prisons have conducted secret medical experiments on inmates, or the last.  Prisons, all 6,215 penal institutions, should open their records, so that the many horrors that have taken place, and continue to take place in prisons, will be exposed.  Sadly, it's unlikely that that will occur.  We will have to rely on good investigative reporters like Heather to expose the ugly truth.