N.Y. Inmates Give Up, Free Hostages, Tape Grievances

Inmates surrendered the last three guards they held hostage Wednesday at a maximum security prison near Elmira, N.Y., and agreed to return to their cells, peacefully ending a 26-hour uprising.

All three guards were taken to a hospital for observation, one on a stretcher because his leg was injured.

SWAT teams stood by as negotiators conferred with the rebellious prisoners at the Southport Correctional Facility throughout the night. As part of the agreement, a local television station recorded a long list of grievances from the inmates, who are considered the most dangerous in the state prison system.

Six guards were seized by more than 50 prisoners, some armed with homemade knives and other weapons, during an hourlong recreational period on Tuesday.

Two of the guards released Tuesday were hospitalized with injuries.

Guards said the hostages had been stripped, chained at the neck and paraded around. Later, the inmates dressed the hostages in prison greens, made beds for them and requested sandwiches for them, said James Flateau, state corrections spokesman.

Early Wednesday, prison officials cut off food, but not water, to the inmates in an effort to force an end to the standoff.

Like other penal institutions, the “maxi-maxi” prison near the Pennsylvania border has been struck by New York state’s budget crisis. State officials have laid off 46 of the prison’s guards, saying fewer guards are needed because inmates are allowed to leave their 6-by-10-foot cells for only an hour each day.

But some guards said they were nervous because many inmates were sentenced to life behind bars without any hope of parole and had little to lose. A legislator who visited the Southport Correctional Facility earlier in the month predicted the possibility of an uprising in a memo to state Commissioner of Correctional Services Thomas A. Coughlin III.

The memorandum concluded that Southport’s staff was “performing heroically under trying circumstances” but would not succeed without further state help.

Gov. Mario M. Cuomo remained in Albany, the capital, throughout the incident, monitoring the situation by phone.

State corrections officials said a key element in freeing the last three guards was the presence of a crew from a Binghamton, N.Y., television station that taped the demands of the inmates. When sound from the tape was played to other prisoners over the correctional facility’s internal communications system, the remaining hostages were freed.

Prisoners interviewed by a reporter from WBNG-TV aired a number of grievances that they said caused the uprising, including complaints about the prison’s food service, inadequate ventilation in cells and the denial of medical care.

State officials said they would investigate the complaints but would also seek to prosecute any prisoners who broke laws during the uprising.