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| Attica victims split $12M |
| By Rochester Democrat and Chronicle |
| Published: 07/18/2005 |
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For Ron Kozlowski, the $150,000 he will receive as a survivor of the Attica prison riot will not erase the memories of an inmate slicing his throat open with a knife. "It doesn't really fulfill what you went through," he said. But, he added, "It's better than nothing." A federal judge ruled last Tuesday how a $12 million award would be divided among 126 claimants, many of whom were part of a group called the Forgotten Victims of Attica. The individual awards will range from $4,166 to $380,000. The Forgotten Victims group represents prison employees who were taken hostage during the 1971 prison uprising as well as the families of men who were slain in the riot and the bloody retaking. New York this year agreed to pay out $12 million over six years to the group, which had maintained that in the weeks after the riot, state officials purposefully prevented lawsuits by prison employees and their families. State officials and the Forgotten Victims agreed to have U.S. District Judge Michael Telesca determine how the $12 million should be divided. "It should help erase some of the sense of injustice," Telesca said last Tuesday. "I can't imagine that everybody will be happy with the amount they receive, because it's not a fair measure of the amount of their suffering or the suffering of their deceased family member. "You can't put a dollar value on heartache and pain and suffering in a situation such as this. Attica was something of epic proportions historically." Attica still stands as the setting of the nation's deadliest prison uprising. In all, 43 people died during the riot and retaking, and many other inmates and hostages were injured. The riot erupted at the maximum-security prison on Sept. 9, 1971, and after a standoff of nearly five days, police stormed the prison behind a wall of wild and deadly gunfire and regained control. |
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