The Bloodiest Prison Uprising in US Penal History provides lessons for present-day institutions involved in American corrections.

This is the untold story of the man in charge, who was intimately involved in the bloody prison uprising, and how he later suffered the politics of the uprising. Nominated as Secretary of Corrections two days before the New Mexico State Prison near Santa Fe exploded with violence on February 2, 1980, author Adolph B. Saenz was deeply involved in ending the prison insurrection, but not until thirty-three inmates died and more than two hundred others were injured.

The murdered inmates and their killers are identified, along with the corrections and state officials who were involved in the prison debacle. The problems and politics of dealing with a mass prison uprising are described in graphic detail, even as the book resonates with present situations and problems in American prisons.