Tom Robbins, A Brutal Beating Wakes Attica’s Ghosts: A Prison, Infamous for Bloodshed, Faces a Reckoning as Guards Go on Trial. The New York Times, 28 February 2015. “This article was produced in collaboration with The Marshall Project, a nonprofit news organization that focuses on criminal justice issues.” On the evening of 9 August 2011 guards told George Williams, an inmate at Attica prison, that he was being taken from his cell for a urine test. “Mr. Williams was wondering why a sergeant would be doing the grunt work of conducting an impromptu drug test when, he said, a fist hammered him hard on the right side of his rib cage. He doubled up, collapsing to the floor. More blows rained down. Mr. Williams tried to curl up to protect himself from the pummeling of batons, fists and kicks. Someone jumped on his ankle. He screamed in pain. He opened his eyes to see a guard aiming a kick at his head, as though punting a football. I’m going to die here, he thought.”

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