August Rebellion

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 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.

Carol Crooks became the poster child for the August Rebellion. Crooks (1954–2016) was a prisoner in the Bedford Hills Correctional Facility for women, jailed originally for first degree manslaughter, and was sentenced 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, later, police found him dead by a gunshot wound. Crooks then met Cidney Reed in prison and the two became lovers. Reed, 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 v. Ohio case. The case decided that evidence seized illegally from criminal prosecution to be thrown out.

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 monetary award for the woman, which they used on 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]