The Devil's Butcher Shop: The New Mexico Prison Uprising

Definitely recommend this book if you are looking for more information on the 1980 New Mexico prison riot and especially if you wish to know what occurred afterward once the riot was fading from the minds of the media & public. Problems would keep occurring for several years due to issues with the administration. There is a lot more to the riot than could ever likely be adequately covered or truly known. Such as how the place was truly ran to benefit the financial well being of others, illegal activity kept hush hush and going on yet not involving the usual culprits, another young man who took a job as an officer there a few years after the riot when most hesitated to work there yet others could not return due to post traumatic stress that they still deal with today due to many unfair reasons, such as simply not being considered in hopes that they would drop the issue. Therefore over ten more convicts/inmates would die or face many more unfathomable conditions just as the young corrections officer in mid 1980s who according to the book moved to take this job and try to get the scoop on true prison conditions......only to end up in terror and suffering for 2-3 hours as he was stabbed and screaming the entire time. You'll also see how illegal activities were covered or how the administration kept choosing to make bad decisions that did not add up to success much less the possibility of even humanely running a prison during its post riot years but yet a select group benefited and their needs & their well being was more important than the convicts/inmates housed there. It was also more important than the lives of the officers working there in many cases such as the safety of females as guards etc. To know it secretly grew back like an unwanted weed in the sidewalk only to be just as dangerous, crazy and out of control as before the riot is hard to fathom but it gives a glimpse into the whole world of prison beyond the pen and it's often hard to understand ways politically and secretly at many others expense. I was also sad to learn that many so called rats murdered for being labeled as such were actually in some cases simply people who refused to tell on others, only to be given the title anyway hence their life toyed with until soon extinguished. Thanks to the mind games inflicted upon everyone who was there to the point where transfers out of state were not occuring as planned, the people missing after the riot still not accounted for only a couple of years later on, or the unknown amount of people who just never were accounted for and due to wrong classification were said to escaped during the many so called 'transfers soon to be discovered totally gone wrong' etc. I don't think there is ever going to be a way to truly know what occurred before, during and long after the riot but it was not change. Many transfers were to worse places and some people transferred to years and years only to know they would eventually return quietly to the NM State Pen and face the music. Leading several to commit suicide in desperate ways rather than go back to such a place. The negotiators were also according to the book tricked and some had the entire ordeal flipped on them later in cruel ways when administration failed to come anywhere close to keeping their word on the conditions there about the improving among certain employees allowed to get out of hand freely and assault inmates mercilessly and what heinous behavior was still continuing beyond the bars (in order to overshadow many crooked deals made with and by the higher ups and kept on the low for years- putting inmates at risk and even moresO the correction officers who went on to work there etc) all due to this hidden activity never exposed thanks to many said higher ups such as the state itself, those receiving kickbacks for helping the higher ups, even judges, & in one instance a few new wardens that were known in their previous states to be a disaster to the mere idea of a prison in need of serious change post riot.This book may not be able to bring everything that is the whole truth to light all these years later but it comes close enough if you simply read between the lines and open your mind to such. It was enough for me to understand how things got out of control beyond belief in 1980 but will shock you with other lesser known information about the treatment of anyone who survived this horrible time. Many lives will never be the same as they both convicts and officers alike were forever altered and some damaged for life, unable to cope with the shocking disaster.

Good book. Interesting and well written

Shockingly enough, the New Mexico Prison uprising was over 40 years ago. This classic book is a great journalistic & contemporary account of the events leading up to the riot and the depravity that occurred during the insurrection.Morris has provided a vivid, compelling portrait of the riot being preventable and simultaneously a horrific lesson that we can learn from. He tells the tales of the dead - and the people responsible for committing them to the awful ending that they faced. He tells the tale of the prison guards, including the hostages and those that hid during the riot. He tells the tale of weak administration & government in the face of the riot, and how we should learn from all that.As with any contemporary account, the long term effects of the riot on the prison system or the government are largely unknown, though Morris has added an epilogue written in 1988 that gives the reader a look at the 8 years that ensued following the disturbance. More study is absolutely necessary to understand how New Mexico and its corrections system have changed following the horrific events of February 2-3, 1980.

There are times that I get a book, start reading and find that I'm not really capable of putting the darn thing down until I finish. Thus was the case with this book. I finished it and had to run to the computer to send off an email to those I know would be interested in reading it as well.It's so incredibly sad to read of all the graft and corruption that goes on. I realize that these are not good people, but at the end of the day, they're still humans. And when guards and officials act no better, who are they to feel superior? The prisoners were in there for theft - while their captors stole with impunity. The prisoners were in there for murder - while their captors allowed murder and mayhem to happen while turning a blind eye. It's incredibly sad, maddening and horrifying all at once.I would highly recommend this book. It's an eye-opener. The problem with it is that I want to know more. I want to know if it's better now. I want to know how things are now . . . in 2014. And that is the highest praise I can give a book, when I want more at the end of it.

This was a great read. As a resident of New Mexico, I live about 20 minutes North of Santa Fe where the prison is located. I've always heard stories about the riot, I actually had a professor at our local college who was the chief firefighter at the time of the riot and he saw first hand the kind of carnage the inmates were able to inflict. He never did go into much detail, or talk about it for long... So I finally decided to buy the book and read some of the first hand accounts about what happened, and how it all came to be. I'd definitely recommend this book to anyone interested in this kind of stuff, and if your from New Mexico, its a little history lesson as well.

this is a really interesting book when i was a correction officer i learned about this riot and about how everything was wrong and how the prison itself was in a big mess. what i like about this book is that it cover a lot of the things that were not told, things behind the scenes and it is very chilling how the inmates died and what they did inside the prison. also show how the state government was also at fault and how laxed the security was at that time. its something that shouldn't have happened but it shows how corrupt the system is and what happens when thingsat not taken care of! I highly recommend this book its interesting but yet chilling Great book!

Well written, recommended