Reported Phenomena

The most active areas of the prison are Cell Blocks 3, 4, the Tool room and the laundry room.

Cell Block 3 was the maximum security ward which also contains the Solitary confinement cell. Activity reported here includes unexplainable noises, doors that open and close by themselves, and lights that turn on and off without any apparent cause.

Cell block 4 was the area where the "snitches" and other prisoners held in protective custody were contained. Upon entering the cell block, there are marks on the floor where rioters used power tools to decapitate the snitches and several other inmates. Also visible are the outlines of scorch marks where other inmates were burned to death with propane cutting torches. Another inmate was hung from the upper tier of the cell block with sheets that had been tied together. The activity reported here is similar to those reported in Cell Block 3. Twenty three of the inmates that were murdered during the riot were killed in Cell Block 4.

The laundry was the site of several murders, although they occurred long before the riot of 1980. It is located in a labyrinth of corridors that lie underneath the prison. These corridors also link to the gas chamber, many mechanical rooms and the tool room where the inmates stole the propane torches and other tools that were used during the riots. Uneasy feelings and whispers are often reported down there as well as unusual human shaped shadows.

santa fe prison
The New Mexico Penitentiary Riot, which took place on February 2 and February 3, 1980 in the state's maximum security prison south of Santa Fe, was one of the most violent prison riots in the history of the American correctional system: 33 inmates died and more than 200 inmates were treated for injuries. None of the 12 guards taken hostage were killed but seven were treated for injuries caused by beatings and rapes.

Author Roger Morris in The Devil's Butcher Shop: The New Mexico Prison Uprising (University of New Mexico Press, 1988) suggests the death toll may have been higher, as a number of bodies were incinerated or dismembered during the course of the mayhem.

Contributing causes
The reason for the New Mexico Penitentiary riot was not due to any single factor; it was a series of critical failures that resulted in the unfolding tragedy.

Firstly, like many correctional facilities of the era, the prison was heavilly overcrowded. On the night of the riot, there were 1,136 inmates in a prison designed for only nine hundred men. Prisoners were not adequately separated. Many were housed in communal dormitories that were unsanitary and served poor-quality food.

Secondly a lack of educational and rehabilitative programs meant many prisoners were locked up for long periods every day. With inconsistent policies and poor communications, relations between guards and inmates were in daily decline.

Snitch Game
Due to a shortage of trained correctional staff, officers used a form of social manipulation called the "snitch game" to control uncooperative prisoners. Guards would simply label inmates who would not behave as informers.

This tactic meant the "named" inmate would start being abused by fellow convicts. Often prisoners would choose to become a "snitch" to get away from their tormentors. However the practice hampered attempts to get accurate information from inmates. It also increased tensions within the prison, as inmates became even more suspicious of the guards and each other.

Nevertheless, conditions were tolerated by New Mexico's state Governor Bruce King, Director of Prisons Felix Rodriguez and prison officials Robert Montoya and Manuel Koroneos. Warnings of an imminent riot were not heeded.

Hostages taken
In the early morning of Saturday, February 2, 1980, two prisoners in south-side Dormitory E-2 overpowered a guard who had caught them drinking homemade liquor. Within minutes, four more of the 15 officers in the dormitory were also taken hostage. At this point the riot might have been contained however a fleeing officer left a set of keys behind.

Soon E-2 cell block was in the inmates' control. Prisoners using the captured keys now seized more guards as hostages before releasing others from their cells.

Violence ensues
Even though they were filled in, the axe marks are still visible from where an inmate was decapitated.By mid morning events had spiralled out of control within the cellblocks. Murder and violence had erupted. Gangs were fighting gangs and a group of rioters led by some of the most dangerous inmates (who by now had been released from solitary confinement) decided to break into cell block 4 which housed the protective custody unit. This held the informers (snitches) but it also housed inmates who were vulnerable, mentally ill or convicted of sex crimes. Initially the plan was to take revenge on the snitches but the violence would soon become indiscriminate.

When the group reached cellblock 4 they found that they did not have keys to enter these cells. Unfortunately for the prisoners in protective custody, the rioters found blowtorches that had been brought into the prison as part of an ongoing construction project. They used these to cut through grilles over the next five hours. Locked in their cells, the segregated prisoners called to the State Police pleading for them to save them but to no avail. Waiting officers decided to do nothing despite there being a back door to the cellblock 4 which might have offered a way to free them.

The burn marks on the floor outside cellblock 4 where a prisoner was set on fire.When the rioters finally got in, victims were pulled from their cells to be tortured, dismembered, decapitated, or burned alive.

During an edition of BBC's Timewatch programme, a former State Police marksmen described the carnage in cell block 4:

I was sighting on the guard tower opposite the custody unit. They lay this guy out on one of the cell doors. One of the prisoners then took a blowtorch and began cutting this guy apart. He was screaming all the time until they put the torch through his head.

Fires that had been deliberately started were now raging unchecked throughout several parts of the prison.

Negotiations begin
Talks to end the riot stalled throughout the first 24 hours. This was because neither the inmates nor the state had a single spokesperson. Eventually inmates made 11 general demands concerned with basic prison conditions like overcrowding, inmate discipline, educational services and improving food. The prisoners also demanded to talk to independent federal officials and members of the news media.

The guards that were held as hostages were released after inmates met reporters. Some of the guards had been protected by inmates but others had been brutally beaten and raped.

One was tied to a chair. Another lay naked on a stretcher, blood pouring from a head wound. (Journal reporter)

None of the guards had been killed but seven had suffered severe injuries.

Again negotiations broke off again in the early hours of Sunday morning. State officials insisting no concessions had been made.

Inmates flee
By now, eighty prisoners, wanting no further part in the disturbances, fled to the baseball field seeking refuge at the fence where the National Guard had assembled.

On Sunday morning, more inmates began to trickle out of the prison seeking refuge. Black inmates led the exodus from the smoldering cellblocks. These groups, large enough to defend themselves from other inmates, huddled together as smoke from the burned-out prison continued to drift across the recreation yard.

Order restored
By mid afternoon, thirty six hours after the riot had begun heavily-armed State Police officers accompanied by National Guard servicemen entered the charred remains of the prison.

Official sources state that at least 33 inmates died. Some overdosed on drugs but most were brutally murdered. Some sources cite a higher death toll. Twenty-three of the victims had been housed in the protective custody unit. More than 200 inmates were treated for injuries sustained during the riot.

Legacy
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 9 years.

Instead Governor King's administration resisted attempts to reform the prison, delayed suits and harassed witnesses. Actions were not settled until the administration of Governor Toney Anaya seven years later.

Much of the evidence was lost or destroyed during and after the riot. One federal lawsuit that had been filed by an inmate was held up in the New Mexico prison system for almost two decades.

However systemic reforms after the riot were undertaken following the Duran v. King consent decree which included implementation of the Bureau Classification System under Cabinet Secretary Joe Williams. This reform work has developed the modern correctional system in New Mexico.