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/August Rebellion

Bedford Hills Correctional Facility for Women is a prison in Bedford Hills in the Town of Bedford, Westchester County, New York, United States, at 247 Harris Road. In August of 1974, about 45 of these prisoners had a riot in which they took over parts of the prison because of the inhumane treatment of one of the leaders among the prisoners, Carol Crooks.

Causes[edit | edit source]
Crooks filed a lawsuit challenging the action of placing women in solitary confinement without a 24 hour notice of charges, hearings, and the reason for the punishment.[2] This lawsuit was filed in July of 1974, and was filed because the guards at Bedford NY Women's Prison started placing prisoners into the special housing units for reasons that were not fair or just.[3] In August of the same year, after the judges who heard Crooks' case ruled in her favor, the prison guards reciprocated by beating her and putting her in a segregated cell[4]. The actions of these guards resulted in the uprising of the prison that included about two hundred inmates. These inmates took action by fighting the guards and for about two and a half hours they were in control of parts of the prison.

Solitary confinement[edit | edit source]
Solitary confinement is form of imprisonment where an inmate is taken from the general population and put into isolation. The use of segregation, solitary confinement, or SHU: special housing unit, is to detain prisoners that have earned their way there through being involved in serious infractions, such as fighting another prisoner or guard or prisoners who are a threat to themselves. Using solitary confinement as a way to cut down the amount of suicides. Most inmates only stay a few days or maybe even weeks but in actuality they could spend decades in solitary confinement, even serve their entire sentence there. Although solitary confinement is used for the safety and sometimes as a punishment of the inmates it has serious effects on the people being placed there. Being held in a small space without access to objects, recreation, or human contact can lead to claustrophobia, anger, depression, hallucinations, insomnia, and obsessive idealization or fixation on dying.

Inmates[5][edit | edit source]
Carol Crooks became the poster child for the August Rebellion. Carol Crooks(1954-2016) was a prisoner in the Bedford Hill Correctional Facility for women, jailed originally for first degree manslaughter, and was sentenced to 0 to 15 years in 1972. Crooks had a hard childhood with the death of her father and having to provide for her sister and mother. Crooks was arrested for manslaughter after killing a worker of her heroin distribution ring. The worker allegedly blackmailed her and he was later found dead by a gunshot wound by police. Carol then met Cidney(Sid) Reed in prison and the two became lovers. Cidney, then 16, was serving a five year sentence for robbery. When Crooks was in solitary confinement, Reed helped rally up female inmates and started the rebellion against officers. Along with Reed, another important leader was Dollree Mapp who was known as the “Rosa Parks for the Fourth Amendment”. Mapp refused to let officers into her home without a search warrant which led to the Mapp vs. Ohio case. The case decided that evidence seized illegally from criminal prosecution to be thrown out.

Aftermath[edit | edit source]
The Bedford NY Prison Riot opened many doors for women in the prison system all over the world. Following the prison riot the women filed and won the lawsuit Powell v. Ward. This lawsuit ended in a legally binding pledge by prison guards to conduct disciplinary proceedings fairly, to only send truly mentally-ill prisoners to psychiatric hospitals, and with a monitory award for the woman, which they used literature and appliances for the betterment of the prison[5]. Although these women have contributed to fairness in the prison system, the mandatory inserts of male correctional officers in female prisons has led to the exploiting of their female charges.​[6]