Biography
Carl Jones-El was incarcerated at Attica in 1971 and helped establish the Attica Liberation Faction. The prisoners' manifesto named him as one of five representatives authorized to negotiate with state and prison officials. The group organized political education and demands for improved prison conditions.
This profile concerns political organizing during imprisonment. It does not establish that the original conviction was politically motivated. Exact custody boundaries and the later release history remain unresolved.
Carl Jones-El identified his prison number as 24534 in a February 1972 interview. He described work in the central office, political education across prison factions, wage-strike organizing, the five-person manifesto drafting group, and the silent fast honoring George Jackson. He testified that officers beat him after the September 13 retaking, injured his arm, and placed him in HBZ segregation. His account also describes observing the torture of Frank Smith. The testimony concerns organizing and retaliation during existing confinement, not a new original arrest. Source: We Are Attica, PDF pages 15, 17-18, 20-24, 25-27, https://freedomarchives.org/Documents/Finder/DOC510_scans/Prisons_Attica/510.we.are.attica.pdf
The March 1973 Attica News roster prints Carl Jones-El (Tariq) among the uprising prisoner defendants, linked to indictment 7: kidnapping, unlawful imprisonment, coercion and assault. The table lists maximum statutory exposure, not sentences actually imposed or time served; no custody dates or duration are inferred. Source: https://freedomarchives.org/Documents/Finder/DOC510_scans/Attica/510.Prisons.AtticaNewsVol1No1.pdf#page=6
The primer identifies Jones-El as one of five Attica Liberation Faction founders in May–June 1971. His reproduced account describes political classes, collective education and collaboration across prisoner factions, and pages 8 and 31–32 give his accounts of the demands and the September 13 shooting. It identifies him with the Moorish Science community and negotiating committee. His presence and political organizing are explicit; no original conviction motive or custody endpoint is inferred.
Attica Prison Uprising 101: A Short Primer (Project NIA, September 2011), PDF page 7.
