SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — Forty years after inmates seized control of the New Mexico State Penitentiary, the costs related to the uprising are still being tallied.
The Albuquerque Journal reports the cost _ in money and how lives were changed forever _ continues to this day.
On Feb. 2, 1980, New Mexico residents and people across the country woke that Saturday morning to the news that inmates had seized the state penitentiary south of Santa Fe and were holding 12 corrections officers hostage.
The cleanup effort and costs were staggering as legislators scrambled to approve a $38 million emergency appropriation.
Hundreds of prisoners were shipped out of state.
