The 1980 New Mexico Prison Revolt

I was reading a work of fiction (CJ Box, The Disappeared) and on page 190 came across the following passage:

The authorities who ran the place were so spooked not to repeat the infamous New Mexico prison riot of 1980 – where thirty-three men were murdered, some by having lengths of steel rebar shoved through their heads …

The 33 caught my eye, and I put down my work of fiction to entertain the possibility of another … a fake prison riot. Of course, the existence of that number does not automatically indicate a fake event, as 33 is a real number that occurs in real life. So I went to Wikipedia to see if there were more spook markers and other indicators of fakery. There are.

Just a few: The riot occurred on February 2, which by chance is the 33rd day of the year. Order was restored 36 hours later, 12 officers were taken hostage. On the night of the riot there were 1156 inmates in the prison that had beds for fewer than 963.

OK, number guy said, I know that each of those numbers can be interpreted differently, as 1156 being two elevens, and 963, 36 and 12 being a string of threes. But let’s set this aside and ask a more important question: Why would such an event, if fake, be staged.

I think at least part of the answer is contained in a 99 (?) page handwritten civil rights complaint to the US District Court of New Mexico by inmate Dwight Duran, at first called Duran v Apodaca, the latter then governor. Later the document became the Duran Consent Decree. Subsequent to that document there were ten grand jury investigations, 1977-79, about prison conditions, but the New Mexico legislature refused to allocate any funds to make changes.

But why stage such an elaborate event? Judging the temperature of the times (the Attica prison revolt (real or fake I do not know) was in 1971). It is hard to judge the moral worth of a prison population, my only experience being movie and TV portrayals. But I do know that maximum security prisons have unbreachable systems containing order – I doubt that an event like the New Mexico revolt could happen without some sort of official prodding or even assistance.

So what are the possibilities:

1. The event was real and reporting of the event was accurate.
2. The event was real, but reports of violence and deaths exaggerated for effect.
3. The event was staged, all deaths fake, and no guards or prisoners were harmed.

It is hard to know, of course, and an in-depth research project would be needed to assess the evidence, including a people search of the list of 33 dead inmates to see if they are real, maybe even still alive in the aftermath. But I do know this: Inmates in this supposed uprising were portrayed as animals, brutally murdering one another by any means imaginable, including using a blow torch on a man’s head until his head actually exploded. As Box noted above, rebar was used to penetrate skulls.

Was that the object? Was it to so sully the already sullied image of prisoners so as to prevent any kind of prison reform, not only in New Mexico but in all of the US?

That would be my guess.

Further evidence of fakery:

“A few inmates were prosecuted for crimes committed during the uprising, but according to author Roger Morris, most crimes went unpunished. The longest additional sentence given to any convict was nine (?) years.”

Author Morris “suggests that the death toll may have been higher as a number pf bodies were incinerated or dismembered during the course of the mayhem. Several inmates died of drug overdoses after having raided the prison pharmacy.”

“Much of the evidence was lost or destroyed during and after the riot.

Each of those items suggest to me that the event might have been fake. One, brutal murders and massive property damage, and no punishments. Second, did the prison not have a roster so that it could have determined who was missing in the aftermath?

It seems lackadaisical and sloppy, suggesting not much concern in official circles.

Finally, actual prison reforms were far off in the future, more than two decades away.

Real or fake? I cannot be certain, but my arrow indicator is leaning towards fake.