Corrections.com spoke to panel members Carlos Roche`, an Attica inmate, lawyer Daniel Meyers, who worked on the Attica lawsuit, Fortune Society founder David Rothenberg, and Fortune Society's CEO, Joanne Page.

Corrections.com: What did you speak about at the panel discussion?

Roche`: I gave my impression of what happened and why it happened.

It was a very bad time in 1971, and I guess the whole world was going crazy. Attica was no exception. Attica was crazy for a long time. In fact, I went there in 1956 and I was doing 30 years. For a long time, I didn't think I'd ever see the streets again.

Attica was the first time that I was ever confronted with racism in New York. It was mind boggling for me. Attica was the first time that I saw ice being used for segregation. Officers would give out ice once a year. They would bring it out in 55 gallon drums. They would come out and say “white ice” and it was ice only for the white men. They would come back and say “black ice” and then anybody could get it. I'm talking about ice, frozen water. It was just crazy. It was a lot of archaic, crazy nonsense and they pitted white inmates against black inmates to maintain control. As long as we stayed angry at each other, it was easier to lock us down.

I spent five years dealing with that every day, seven days a week. The only time that I felt safe was at lock-in time. We locked in at five o'clock every night, and we weren't out again until seven the next morning. Those were the times when I didn't have to worry about someone stabbing me or beating me with a pipe. I went through that every day for five years.

Attica was considered the worst of the worst at that time. If you couldn't be controlled in Attica you went to the graveyard.

Meyers: I spoke to the panel about my involvement with the Attica case. I spent 35 years working for peanuts trying to prosecute this case. When we finally succeeded, it was a huge personal victory for me after all of that work and for the inmates and their families.

The panel heard the firsthand accounts of what it was like to have suffered through this extraordinary event, what it was like to be subjected to torture and brutality, to see people killed next to you, to suffer for 35 years with post-traumatic stress disorder, the sleepless nights, going back to the yard, the smelling of the gas, the hearing of the shots. It's never relieved. It can never be forgotten.

Rothenberg: The panel was amazing. I spoke and reflected on my own experiences in the yard. The inmates invited us to come in and observe, and it's an experience that you never forget. It's one of those points in your life. It was interesting listening to Carlos talk about those events.

It was cathartic for Carlos; talking about the anger, fear, and disillusionment that came from their perspective. The saddest thing is that I believed in happily ever after when I was younger. I never thought the government was the enemy. Of course those of us living with the Bush administration are seeing, all over again, that the government can be the enemy.

The only way the forces of evil can succeed is if enough good people remain silent. If I remain silent about what I saw at Attica, I am giving validity to evil acts.

CC: Why do you think remembering Attica is important?

Meyers: We want to look at where we are today. In a lot of ways, it is a story in which it seems we have regressed. Most of the people in the audience, the people who spoke on the panel, the head of the Fortune Society, people in the know so to speak, have described the situation in extremely bleak terms.

After Attica, a good deal of prison reform took place. There was a short period of time where prisons weren't built and a discussion took place about what kinds of prisons should be built. It was discussed that education was extremely important, treatment is more important than punishment, establishing prisoner legal services and programs they could have avenues to exercise their rights.

People had the ability to get GEDs and college degrees. There were outside people who came in for the arts and literature. For a number of years afterward Attica allowed greater contact with the outside world, greater ability for the outside world to look in.

All of this progress ended in mid-1980. The demarcation in terms of the nationwide shift away from this reform period to one of punishment was the enactment by the United States Congress during the Regan Administration of mandatory sentencing guidelines and abolishing parole.

You can no longer enter a treatment program instead of prison. There is only the robotic treatment of people and the imposition of prison sentences. That has been replicated by the states. There has been the same approach to mandatory minimums and sentencing guidelines that control this system.

Page: More people are in prison and more people are doing time. When I started volunteering in prison, I could count the number of prisons and I knew all of their names in New York. Now, there are so many that I can't even keep track of them. We've seen the number of prisoners go up and the average length of sentencing going up.

Attica shaped what followed, in terms of prison conditions and commitment on the part of those of us who were coming of age at that time.

I think what's most important is that we're sliding back and forgetting the lessons that we've learned from Attica, but we're doing it at greater volume. Attica is about all of us and it's about fighting to make sure it doesn't happen again.

Roche`: It was a nightmare for years. I could still smell the gas in my sleep. It would wake me up. I could hear guns going off while I was sleeping. For years, I would sleep two or three hours a night. It wasn't that much better afterwards. I went to the parole board in 1976 and I got hit with two years. Two weeks later I escaped. I stayed out for a few years. It forced you into becoming a monster. When I was out, I wore bulletproof vests and slept with two guns for two years.

The panel discussion was a release for me. I still get wound up. I'll never forget it.

CC: What was the most moving part of the discussion today?

Page: Hearing the Attica inmates speaking was the high point. Someone in the audience said, ‘It's because of the struggles you went through that I was able to get a college education in prison.' The most moving part of the discussion was remembering what happened 35 years ago and connecting it to today.