BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) – When the next anniversary of the 1971 Attica prison riot arrives in September, survivors and relatives of state workers killed in the siege will take their usual place on the prison grounds, with candles and pictures, for a memorial.

For the first time, they will also bring with them a sense of justice, following a $12 million settlement with the state viewed as an acknowledgment of their decades of grief.

“When you’ve been crying for so long about something being wrong and nobody acknowledges it, people start to wonder about the validity of it,” said Deanne Quinn Miller, who was 5 when her prison guard father, William Quinn, was killed by inmates.

With the recognition and settlement, she said, comes healing.

Gov. George Pataki, in his executive budget proposal last week, called for a $2 million payment upfront to the Forgotten Victims of Attica and the allocation of $10 million more over the next five years.

The money is expected to be distributed to about 50 families.

Inmates took over portions of the prison near Buffalo and took guards hostage Sept. 9, 1971. A four-day standoff ended when Gov. Nelson Rockefeller ordered a state police assault. Most of the 32 inmates and 11 prison employees who died were killed during the retaking.

The Forgotten Victims group, whose members include former hostages and families of those killed, have been seeking reparations from the state for several years, spurred on by outrage over a 2000 court ruling that gave $8 million to 502 inmates and their families.

Surviving hostages and relatives of the dead guards claimed the state urged them to accept limited benefits that effectively barred them from suing the state.

“The people have awaited an outcome for 33 years,” the group’s lawyer, Gary Horton, said.

Although the settlement acknowledges “the deep toll” paid by Attica victims, it stops short of containing an apology – something the Forgotten Victims listed first among five demands to the state.

Group members, however, said they were satisfied with language that states in part: “the executive and legislature find that the state owes a moral obligation to the concerned employees and/or their survivors to fashion a fair, just and inclusive remedy.”

The settlement also grants the group’s request to conduct a memorial service on the grounds every Sept. 13, and indicates the settlement money should go in part toward counseling, which also was sought.

Quinn Miller said the final demand for access to the state’s records of the riot remained unresolved but on the table. “They know that we’re coming back to negotiate,” she said.

In the meantime, she said, the settlement money – expected to arrive in time for the next anniversary – will go a long way toward helping the group’s aging widows, many of whom live below the poverty line and lack health insurance. One of the widows died a month ago.

“It can’t bring back a loved one,” Quinn Miller said, “but I’m thankful because this … will make a significant impact on people’s lives.”

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