The Prison Guard's Daughter: My Journey Through the Ashes of Attica

by Deanne Quinn Miller, Gary Craig (With), Malcolm Bell (Foreword by)

Overview

On the 50th anniversary of America’s deadliest prison riot comes a prison-guard daughter’s quest to uncover the truth about her father’s murder during the uprising―a story of crossing racial divides, befriending inmates and correctional officers alike, and challenging the state to reveal and pay for its malfeasance.

Deanne Quinn Miller was five years old when her father—William “Billy” Quinn—was murdered in the first minutes of the Attica Prison Riot, the only corrections officer to die at the hands of inmates. But how did he die? Who were the killers? Those questions haunted Dee and wreaked havoc on her psyche for thirty years. Finally, when she joined the Forgotten Victims of Attica, she began to find answers. This began the process of bringing closure not only for herself but for the other victims’ families, the former prisoners she met, and all of those who perished on September 13, 1971—the day of the “retaking,” when New York State troopers and corrections officers at the Attica Correctional facility slaughtered twenty-nine rioting prisoners and ten hostages in a hail of gunfire.

In The Prison Guard’s Daughter, Dee brings readers in on her lifelong mission for the truth and justice for the Attica survivors and the families of the men who lost their lives. But the real win was the journey that crossed racial and criminal-justice divides: befriending infamous Attica prisoner Frank “Big Black” Smith, meeting Richard Clark and other inmates who tried to carry her father to safety after his beating, and learning what life was like for all of the people―prisoners and prison employees alike―inside Attica. As Miller lays bare the truth about her father’s death, the world inside Attica, and the state’s reckless raid and coverup, she conveys a narrative of compassionate humanity and a call for prison reform.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781635768046
Publisher:	Diversion Books
Publication date:	09/07/2021
Pages:	288
Sales rank:	639,999
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Deanne Quinn Miller is co-founder of the Forgotten Victims of Attica and the daughter of correctional officer William Quinn, the first casualty of the Attica Prison Riot. With Miller’s leadership, the Forgotten Victims secured $12 million in reparations for its members, counseling for all who sought it, and an annual memorial at the prison. The organization continues to push for other goals—the unsealing of the remaining thousands of pages of non-public riot records and an apology from the New York State.





Miller has previously worked as the executive director of the Genesee Veterans Support Network and received the state Women Veterans in the Justice System award in 2016 and the Women of Distinction Award in 2017 for her work with veterans. She graduated cum laude from the Universityof New York at Buffalo with a BS in Consumer and Family Studies. Since 2014, she has been the Program Coordinator for the Veterans Defense Program of the New York State Defenders Association, a program that provides support and legal aid to struggling veterans who become involved in the criminal justice system. Miller lives in Batavia, New York, and is married with two daughters.



Gary Craig is an investigative reporter with the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle. He has won national awards for his reporting and writing—including multiple awards for reporting on prison conditions—and more than two dozen state, regional, and national honors. He is the author of Seven Million: A Cop, a Priest, a Soldier for the IRA, and the Still-Unsolved Rochester Brink’s Heist.





Craig covered the resolution of the decades-long lawsuit filed by Attica inmates against the state. Since 2000, he has written extensively about Attica, reporting on the birth and work of the Forgotten Victims of Attica, and the efforts to open Attica records. Craig lives in Rochester, New York, and is married with two daughters.

Table of Contents

Foreword Malcolm Bell, former state prosecutor in the Attica uprising investigation ix

Prologue xiii

Chapter 1 The Prison Whistle 1

Chapter 2 Struggles at Home 13

Chapter 3 Life beyond Attica 25

Chapter 4 The Radio Show 34

Chapter 5 My Father's Killers 50

Chapter 6 Attica Families Reunite 57

Chapter 7 Demands of the Forgotten Victims 65

Chapter 8 Our Lobbying Begins 74

Chapter 9 He Was Like a Guardian Angel 82

Chapter 10 The Guard Who Survived 89

Chapter 11 Big Black and I 103

Chapter 12 Increasing the Pressure 111

Chapter 13 Meeting the Attica Prosecutor 117

Chapter 14 Taking Our Case Public 127

Chapter 15 Meeting Richard 133

Chapter 16 The Workmen's Compensation Ruse 140

Chapter 17 Task Force Heats Up 145

Chapter 18 The Pains of 9/11 151

Chapter 19 Shattered Dreams 160

Chapter 20 I Thought My Dad Was Superman 166

Chapter 21 All of These People on That List Are Dead? 172

Chapter 22 I Couldn't Stand on That Ground Again 185

Chapter 23 The Negotiations Stall 199

Chapter 24 Saying No to $10 Million 207

Chapter 25 Restitution for Survivors 215

Chapter 26 The Riot Artifacts 223

Chapter 27 Opening the Records 233

Chapter 28 Seeking an Apology 241

Epilogue 245

Acknowledgments 253

Sources 257

Index 263

About the Authors 271

Editorial Reviews

Deanne Quinn Miller’s life journey is a remarkable tale of healing and reconciliation, born from the tragedy of the nation’s deadliest prison uprising—the Attica riot that claimed the life of her father. The Prison Guard’s Daughter reminds us that we can reach across divides—racial, social, economic—and learn lessons about others that inevitably teach us about ourselves. In a world in which the chasms among people seem to swell wider every day, this book tells us that our true angels can prevail, as long as we are ready to engage them.”

—Sister Helen Prejean, author of Dead Man Walking: The Eyewitness Account of the Death Penalty That Sparked a National Debate

“In the wake of the unimaginable trauma caused by the State of New York, there were the courageous few who had to endure even more pain to make sure that there was some reckoning with this horrific event, and some measure of justice for its victims. This is the extraordinarily beautiful story of one of the most courageous of those few, Dee Quinn Miller, who, quite literally, changed history.” 
—Heather Ann Thompson, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Blood in the Water: The Attica Prison Uprising of 1971 and its Legacy

“This book tells the life story of a little girl struck by tragedy who finds strength and courage from seeking and finding other, and occasionally opposite, perspectives. Poignant and salient for anyone who cares about someone else who wears a badge.”
—Mike Jimenez, former President of the California Correctional Peace Officers’ Association 

“[The Prison Guard’s Daughter] is a personal, affecting, and eye-opening account of a pivotal tragedy on the seemingly endless road to prison reform.”
—Booklist

From the Publisher

06/17/2022

On the 50th anniversary of one of the deadliest prison riots in the United States, this book highlights the personal quest by Miller (cofounder, Forgotten Victims of Attica) for answers about her father's death in the 1971 uprising at New York State's Attica Correctional Facility. Forty-three men were killed over the course of five-day riot: 10 correctional officers and 33 men imprisoned at Attica. Miller's father, William "Billy" Quinn, died when the author was only five years old; he was the riot's first casualty and the only correctional officer to be killed by the prisoners—the majority of the men who died (39 out of the 43, including 9 correctional officers) were killed by law enforcement gunfire. For more than 30 years, Miller searched sought answers about her father's death—who killed him? how did he die?—a journey that she recounts in this compelling, well-written book. Along the way, she befriended several of the imprisoned men who had participated in the Attica uprising and who helped her piece together information regarding Quinn's death. Among the book's conclusions is that the prison and state officials lied about the events of the uprising. It finds evidence that when law enforcement retook Attica on the riot's final, bloody day (when 39 men were killed in a hail of police bullets), they never attempted to rescue the correctional officers being held hostage inside the prison. VERDICT Miller's compassionate book (coauthored by investigative journalist Craig, who has reported on Attica for the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle) discusses the state's deception around the Attica tragedy, grapples with forgiveness and reparations, and calls for prison reform.—Kristy White

Library Journal

2021-07-07
The daughter of a slain prison guard tells the story of her quest for truth, justice, and recompense for all prison worker families affected by the infamous 1971 Attica uprising.

Miller had just started first grade when her father was beaten by Attica rioters and left to die. His brutal, tragic death brought chaos to a once-happy family. The author began suffering from mysterious stomach problems, while her mother “was grieving herself while taking care of two young girls and a newborn.” Inevitably, Miller's family deflected most of the questions she later had about her father. She grew up knowing only that Attica prisoners were "monsters.” Meanwhile, everyone else regarded her with a maddening sympathy that suggested they “knew more about the death of our father than we did.” The lessons she learned in high school history class about Attica proved especially troubling in how they sympathized with prison rioters. It was this contradiction that led Miller to research the riots to learn what really happened to her father. For the next two decades, she followed the litigation that eventually ended in the late 1990s with damage awards to inmates Miller had held responsible for her father’s death. Outraged that Attica prison families had never received redress, the author co-founded the Forgotten Victims of Attica. As the leader of FVOA, she met with—and, to her surprise, later befriended—former inmate leaders who helped her understand that Attica prisoners and families were both victims of a state penal system bent on hiding the truth. Miller provides a welcome testimonial to the hardships suffered by Attica prison families and to the healing power of reconciliation. However, the drama inherent in the story and the narrative momentum suffer from redundant, pedestrian prose.

Miller’s courage and diligence are commendable, but the book is a dull treatment of an impassioned tale.

Kirkus Reviews