Most of the inmates were sure it was just another snow job, and maybe they were right. When the agitation began to boil up again a few months later, stronger than ever, Murphy came to my cell again to tell me that the commissioner was coming down to meet with a delegation of prisoners. I had been appointed, he told me, as the spokesman for A block.
大多数犯人都确信这不过是另一场骗局，也许他们是对的。几个月后，当骚动再次爆发时，比以往任何时候都要强烈，墨菲再次来到我的牢房，告诉我说，监狱长要下来会见一个由囚犯组成的代表团。他告诉我，我已被任命为一个街区的发言人。
“By who?” I wanted to know.
“By me.”
“Oh no,” I said. I didn’t want to be singled out as leader on this. If anything happened, I could see where the authorities were going to be looking at me the same way Granger had when the riot broke out at Dannemora.
“代表谁？"我想知道。
“我。”
“哦，不，”我说。我不想在这个问题上被单独挑出来当领导。若发生了任何事，我就能知道当局会盯上我，像格兰杰在丹内莫拉发生暴乱时那样。
But Murphy kept pleading with me, and I finally agreed to go down to the warden’s office with him and the other two delegates. Right from the beginning, McGinnis talked directly to me. He had been in the prison system during the Dannemora riot, too, he wanted me to know, and so he was sure I agreed with him that we had to do everything possible to stop anything that could lead to that kind of bloodbath.
但墨菲一直在恳求我，最终我还是同意和他，以及另外两名代表一起去监狱长办公室。从一开始，麦克金尼斯就直接跟我说话。在丹尼莫拉暴乱期间，他已经在监狱的系统里，他也想让我知道这点。以便他确信我同意他的看法，我们必须尽一切可能，阻止任何可能导致那种大屠杀的事情。
I had walked in there determined to keep my mouth shut, but with nobody else saying a word, I found myself doing all the talking. Denying all the while that I was a spokesman for anybody. Dannemora had gone up, I reminded him because the inmates were without hope. And while I was willing to concede that Attica was nowhere near as bad as Dannemora, I emphasized to him as strongly as I could that prisoners weren’t anywhere near as willing to accept that kind of inhumanity and brutality any more.
我在走进去之前，就已决定闭上嘴巴了，但是因为没有人说话，我没发现自己有什么不同。当作为发言人时，我否认了所有的事。我提醒他，丹娜莫拉已经上去了，因为囚犯们没有希望了。虽然我愿意承认阿提卡远没有丹妮莫拉那么坏，但我还是尽力向他强调，囚犯们再也不愿意接受那种不人道和残忍了。
We were in there for over an hour, and I have to say that he was a powerful advocate. He pledged his word—absolutely—that if he were given just a little more time, most of the grievances would be taken care of. I believed he was sincere then, and I still believe it. Running a prison system has to be the most thankless job in the world. Although all government agencies are tied up in red tape, the prison system—as he pointed out—was ten times worse than any of the others. Nobody ever wants to divert any extra money toward it. The prisoners are stacked up inside like cordwood, and all anybody wants to do is forget about them.
我们在那里呆了一个多小时，我不得不说他是一个强有力的倡导者。他发誓说，如果再给他一点时间，大部分的冤屈就会得到解决。我当时相信他是真诚的，现在仍然相信。管理监狱系统是世界上最吃力不讨好的工作。尽管所有的政府机构都被繁文缛节所束缚，但正如他所指出的，监狱系统比其他任何机构都要糟糕十倍。没有人愿意把多余的钱花在这上面。囚犯们像绳子一样堆在里面，任何人都想忘掉他们。
Well, there were four of us who had the equally thankless job of going back into the exercise yards and telling the prisoners to wait some more. What troubled the key men most of all was that all the other prisons in NewYork had conducted sit-down strikes by then, and we hadn’t done anything. They felt very strongly that when ex-cons got together in future years, the guys who had served time in Attica would have a very bad name.
好吧，我们四个人都做着同样吃力不讨好的工作，回到操场上，告诉囚犯们再等一会儿。最让关键人物感到不安的是，纽约所有其他监狱都在那时举行了静坐罢工，而我们什么也没做。他们非常强烈地感觉到，当前科人员在未来的岁月里聚在一起的时候，那些在阿提卡服过刑的人将会声名狼藉。
I said, “All right, but do it orderly. Reach a point where you get enough publicity to let the other prisoners know we’re with them, and then quit.” Word went out to all the prisoners not to leave their cells the following day, and the strike was about ninety percent successful. Around noon, when I heard that the news of the strike was being broadcast over the radio, I sent word to the key people that the purpose had been accomplished. The longer they tried to extend the strike, I had warned them, the greater the risk that they were going to lose control over it. “A prison riot is like a war in which only one side has guns,” I had told them. “Don’t ever forget that.”
我说，“好吧，但是要有序地进行。要达到公开宣传让其他囚犯知道一点，我们是和他们在一起的，不会再他们离开前退出。第二天，所有的犯人都得到通知，不许离开牢房。罢工成功了大约90%。中午时分，当我听到广播里正在播放罢工的消息时，我给关键人物发去消息，说罢工的目的已经实现了。我警告过他们，他们越想延长罢工时间，就越有可能失去对罢工的控制。“监狱暴动就像一场只有一方拥有枪支的战争，”我告诉他们。“永远不要忘记这一点。”
The following morning about ninety percent of them came out of their cells. The few diehards didn’t hold out for more than another day or two.
But, do you know, I never went through Times Square during all my efforts to keep things cool that the guard didn’t call up to the warden’s office to make sure that it was all right to unlock the gate.
第二天早上，大约百分之九十的老鼠走出了它们的牢房。少数顽固分子坚持不了一两天。
但是，你知道吗，在我努力保持冷静的过程中，我从来没有穿过时代广场，警卫也没有打电话到典狱长办公室，确认一下是否可以打开大门。
I had arrived at Attica after two weeks in isolation at Sing Sing, leg-manacled to a prisoner who had been thrown into the shipment with me at the last moment for the sole purpose of supplying the leg for the other half of the manacle. Although the poor guy was being taken all the way up to Attica and then back down to Greenhaven, he took it in the spirit of adventure. There are two detectives across from us practically sitting in our laps, and the first chance he got he whispered, “Willie, if you have a chance I’ll do everything I can to push you out the window.”
我在新新被隔离了两周后，来到了阿提卡，一条腿被铐在一个囚犯身上，这个囚犯在最后一刻和我一起被扔进了船里，唯一的目的就是为另一条腿提供脚镣。虽然这个可怜的家伙被一路带到阿提卡，然后又回到格林黑文，但他是带着冒险精神来的。我们对面坐着两个探员，他一有机会就小声说: “威利，如果你有机会，我会尽我所能把你赶出窗外。”
After another two weeks in segregation, I was taken before Deputy Walter Wilkins, a little shrimp of a man who was known as The Shadow because he was always lurking in dark corners trying to catch you for something. Wilkins stared at me sternly from behind an enormous desk and when that didn’t reduce me to a quivering heap he tucked his chin down into his neck and, deepening his voice to give it the ring of authority, proceeded to read off the record of my escapes and convictions. Once that had been accomplished, he looked up at the ceiling and pursed his lips in the manner of a man who is pondering some momentous decision.
在隔离制度下又过了两个星期，我被带到副警长沃尔特威尔金斯面前。他长得像只小虾，人们叫他“影子”，因为他总是躲在黑暗的角落里，想逮住你。威尔金斯从一张大桌子后面严厉地盯着我，当这还没有使我变成一堆颤抖的东西时，他把下巴缩进脖子里，加深了嗓门，给我戴上了权威的戒指，开始念我逃跑和信念的记录。这一切完成后，他抬头望着天花板，噘起嘴唇，象一个正在考虑重大决定的人。
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