Inmates did not have far to look for reasons to rebel. Rules, in general, annoyed them. In order to get a rule changed, prisoners had to initiate a strike or a prison riot before the warden and his staff would respond. For example, by refusing to work, inmates showed their discontent with the silence rule, and after two strikes in three years, the administration revoked the rule.

Group Action

In time, inmates came to believe that they received more immediate consideration from the administration when they acted as a group. Guard Frank Heaney describes a dining room demonstration that he witnessed:

All of a sudden the inmates started picking up the benches and tables, and their silverware and trays, and throwing them all over the place. Before long it was a full-scale riot.... It was obviously premeditated.

The lieutenant on duty took one look...