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New Mexico is known for its southwestern cuisine, rich history, and its spectacular landscapes. The Land of Enchantment is filled with many friendly people, but it also holds a lesser-known but horrific claim. New Mexico is the site of one of the most violent prison riots in American history. Its true, and we’ll tell you about it.
Originally opened in 1885, the Penitentiary of New Mexico is a men’s maximum security prison located in Santa Fe County, just south of the state capital. Since it’s opening, there have been 3 deadly riots. None as deadly as the one that occurred on February 2 and 3 of 1980.
It is documented by Author Roger Morris, that “the riot was a predictable incident based on an assessment of prison conditions.” At the time, there were 1,156 inmates in the prison, however only 963 beds were available, which left nearly 200 inmates sleeping on the floor or sharing beds with other inmates. Overcrowding was a major problem, which led to anger and disturbances. Non-violent prisoners were not kept separate from those serving time for repeat violent crimes. Dormitories were unsanitary and crowded and food quality was less than ideal. It is even documented that mice and cockroaches were present at the facility, causing stomach and intestinal problems for the prisoners.
Beyond the sheer horror of the conditions, these men were also left with no educational, recreational, or rehabilitative programs which had stopped 5 years prior (1975). Following a change in prison leadership that same year, the penitentiary became quickly short staffed with correctional staff who lacked proper training. The State Attorney General’s office did an investigation that found prison officials had begun coercing the inmates to become informants in a strategy they called “the snitch game.” The AG’s report said that the anger from the “snitching” led to inmates fighting between one another. All of which led to terrible conditions and very unhappy inmates. Disturbances had occurred prior to the riot, but none as deadly as what was to come.
At 1:40 AM on February 2, 1980, the riot began in what prisoners and onlookers alike called “Old Main.” Two inmates overpowered the usual 2 officers performing the nighttime dorm checks. Now, had the grill to the south wing of the building been closed and locked, the riot might have been contained.
A prisoner in an officer’s uniform was standing by the open grill, pretending to be guarding it. Upon approaching the grill 2 guards found a hallway filled with prisoners and were quickly taken hostage, along with 10 other guards working that night.
There was so much uproar and so many inmates aiding in the take-over that by 2:05 AM on February 2, the prison control center had been taken over after inmates had smashed through the supposed bulletproof glass with a fire extinguisher. This allowed those in the control center to unlock doors and locks of the building.
This is when events spiraled out of control.
Cell blocks 2 and 3 were running rampant in the prison, and both sets of prisoners quickly broke into Cell Block 4, which had been labeled “the informers.” It also housed inmates who were sex offenders, mentally ill or otherwise considered vulnerable. According to sources, there were 96 inmates in Cell Block 4.
Blowtorches held in Cell Block 5 for construction use were taken and used to cut the security grills of Block 4, as well as burning records in the Psychology ward. The grills to Block 4 took upwards of 5 hours to break through, and as dawn was breaking on February 2, the hostile inmates flooded the cell hallways in search of the informants who had been “snitching.”
“During an edition of BBC’s Timewatch program, an eyewitness described the carnage in Cell Block 4. They saw an inmate held up in front of a window; he was being tortured by using a blowtorch on his face and eyes until his head exploded. Another story was about Mario Urioste, who was jailed for shoplifting. He was originally placed by officers in a violent unit where he was gang-raped by seven inmates. Mario had filed a lawsuit against his rapists, so prison officials had housed him in Cell Block 4 for his own protection. Urioste was one of the targets for revenge. His body was found hanged, with his throat cut and his dismembered genitals stuffed into his mouth.”
The fighting was so terrible that men were killed with shanks, piping, and even work tools that were in the prison for construction purposes. Bodies began to be piled in the nearby gymnasium and burned. The riot was in full swing, and with only guards who were held hostage inside, there was no stopping the uproar.
Negotiations with the warden and deputy warden occurred throughout the early morning hours. They continued throughout the entire day, with little outcome on February 2. The negotiations halted that night, and resumed in the early hours the following day.
By February 3rd, the body count was rising and the prison was in shambles with fires blazing in several different areas. By mid-afternoon on February 3rd however, armed state police officers and officers of the Santa Fe police department entered the charred, overrun prison.
Official sources state that at least 33 inmates died, 12 of whom were originally held in protective custody. Author Roger Morris writes in his book that more than 33 may have been killed though, because many were dismembered or incinerated. There is no way to really know, especially since all documentation of the prisoners were burned during the chaos. More than 200 inmates and 12 guards were treated for injuries.
It then took days before prisoners could return to the penitentiary. Order had to be restored and cleanup had to occur.
Old Main was reopened and housed some of the state’s most notorious criminals until it was permanently closed in 1998 and prisoners moved to a newer facility nearby.
The Penitentiary of New Mexico still houses the worst criminals this state has ever seen, some who are even waiting for their ultimate fate of the death penalty. The location is the same, but the building that housed one of the nation’s most deadly riot is now just left to rot as a tragic memory for the New Mexico Department of Corrections.
Resources:
Morris,Roger (1983). The Devil’s Butcher Shop: The New Mexico Prison Uprising. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press.
Schmalleger, Frank and Smikla, John Ortiz (2001) Corrections in the 21st Century McGraw Hill, New York
Mark Colvin, “The 1980 New Mexico Prison Riot”, Social Problems, Vol. 29, No. 5, June 1982.
Feather, Bill (September 25, 1980). “‘Snitching’ system stirred prison riot”. The Free Lance–Star.
Velasquez, Anna (2014-05-16). “Inmate recalls grisly 1980 NM prison riot”. KOAT.
