Heather Ann Thompson's 2016 history of the Attica Prison takeover, Blood in the Water: The Attica Prison Uprising of 1971 and Its Legacy, won a Pulitzer Prize in history for its deeply researched account of the deadliest prison incident in U.S. history. But there's one place you can't read it: inside New York prisons.
The 1971 takeover of Attica ended after four days when roughly 550 law enforcement officers retook the prison by force, dumping tear gas on the prison yard and then firing buckshot indiscriminately into the fog. They killed 39 people, including nine hostages. Afterward, the state of New York engaged in a decadeslong cover-up to hide the truth about the carnage. As the book ban shows, it's still at it.
