Freedom Unshackled
SUBSTACK
Albany County Was Warned
For more than a year, advocates raised concerns about violence, serious injuries and accountability inside the Albany County Correctional Facility. Now some of those allegations are in federal court,
Aug 30, 2026
We want to acknowledge our partners who came together with the Freedom Unshackled Coalition in this work: NAACP Albany, Center for Law and Justice, Bridge Tha Gap, AVillage, Tru Heart Inc., New York State Jails Justice Network, New York State Council of Churches, 100 Black Men of the Capital District, and the Capital Area Urban League. This has been a collective effort.
Incarceration is not a license to abuse.
On January 16, 2025, the mother of Jai-Ream Daniels reached out to Freedom Unshackled with a frightening allegation: her son had been brutally beaten inside the Albany County Correctional Facility and was being denied contact with his attorney and family. We began raising the alarm, but Daniels would not be the last name brought to our attention.
Over the months that followed, more incarcerated people and their families came forward with allegations of beatings, serious injuries, denied legal visits, retaliation and deplorable conditions. We wrote emails. We made calls. We staged protests. We met with elected officials and correctional leadership. We appeared before the County Legislature and proposed policy changes and independent civilian oversight. We were not simply telling Albany County something was wrong. We were asking those with the power to intervene to do something before more people were harmed or, like Robert Brooks and Messiah Nantwi, killed.
This week, nineteen months later, Jai-Ream Daniels’ name appeared again, this time as one of four men suing Albany County and Sheriff Craig Apple in federal court. Daniels, Cory Thompson, Isiah Parker-Bagaba and Jermaine Brown allege that correction officers assaulted them in separate incidents at the Albany County Correctional Facility, with three suffering multiple facial fractures. The allegations include broken noses, fractured eye sockets and injuries serious enough to require hospitalization and surgery.
These allegations have not yet been adjudicated, and filing a lawsuit does not establish that everything alleged occurred. But for those of us who had been hearing these names, listening to families and raising concerns long before this complaint was filed, the lawsuit did not introduce a new problem. It brought allegations we had been demanding officials take seriously into a federal courtroom.
How Did We Get Here?
In April 2025, we moved beyond raising concerns publicly and sat down with Sheriff Craig Apple and members of his administration to discuss what was happening and what could be done about it. Afterward, George D. McHugh, counsel to the sheriff, contacted me and said Sheriff Apple had asked him to establish ongoing communication with us. McHugh wrote that Apple had directed him to make that dialogue “a priority.”
At a follow-up meeting, we asked to review the facility’s Use of Force and Grievance policies and proposed tracking serious injuries and hospital transports so patterns could not simply be dismissed as isolated incidents. Every FOIL request we submitted seeking information about these issues was denied for one technical reason or another.
Superintendent Michael Lyons, responsible for the facility’s daily operations, was not at that meeting. Training was suggested as part of the solution, and we were willing to help develop it. But we were clear: you cannot train your way out of policies and practices that lack accountability. Use of force, grievances, reporting and accountability had to be addressed first.
In an email following that meeting, we described our concern plainly: a culture of violence existed within the facility without accountability for correction officers. We also raised Lyons’ absence in writing because you cannot address the culture of a correctional facility without the person responsible for running it at the table.
When Access to an Attorney Becomes Another Battle
Among the most troubling issues we brought directly to Apple was the denial or obstruction of legal visits. We had received complaints from incarcerated people, including Jai-Ream Daniels and Wakeem Ricks, who reported difficulty accessing their attorneys. Particularly troubling were cases in which an incarcerated person maintained that they were trying to meet with an attorney while facility records indicated they had “refused.” The incarcerated person says, “They wouldn’t let me see my attorney,” while the institution says, “He refused to go.” Who verifies which account is true?
Apple agreed to create a numbered document for instances when someone was said to have refused a legal visit or court appearance. We asked that its use be mandatory and that the District Attorney’s Office, public defenders and private attorneys be told the document existed.
Apple said no.
He was willing to create the document but would not make its use mandatory or notify attorneys about it. What accountability does a document provide if nobody is required to use it and the attorneys who need it are not even told it exists? Meaningful access to legal counsel is too important to depend on an optional piece of paper.
The absence of Superintendent Lyons from our meeting matters even more now. What did he know about the complaints, serious injuries and allegations of excessive force occurring under his leadership, and what did he do about them?
Marquis Norwood and What the Cameras Show
In September 2024, Marquis Norwood suffered serious injuries, including a broken eye socket, during an encounter with Albany County correction officers while incarcerated at the facility. With his permission, we publicly shared the disturbing video. It shows Norwood displaying no visible aggression before being taken down, punched and kicked as additional officers converge. By the end, roughly 12 to 15 officers are present, with some appearing to position themselves between the camera and the assault. Whether it was intentional or not, the wall of correctional officers was directly in front of the camera’s view.
The brutality was chillingly reminiscent of the violence captured in the beatings of Robert Brooks at Marcy Correctional Facility and Messiah Nantwi at Mid-State Correctional Facility. Both men died. Norwood survived. No one should have to die before violence captured on camera is taken seriously.
From “Make This a Priority” to “I Don’t Pay Any Attention to Them Anymore”
In April 2025, Apple directed his counsel to make ongoing communication with us “a priority.” We continued bringing concerns forward and proposing solutions.
Later, he told the Times Union, “I don’t pay any attention to them anymore. Their allegations have been investigated and disproven.” But where are those investigations, and what evidence was reviewed? This is precisely why we were calling for independent oversight: investigations into allegations of misconduct need transparency. Now, several allegations we had been raising, which Apple said had been investigated and disproven, are headed to federal court.
But what happened between “make this a priority” and “I don’t pay any attention to them anymore”?
The Sheriff Is Leaving. The Questions Aren’t.
In July 2026, Apple announced he would not seek another term as sheriff. His departure cannot close the book on what happened under his leadership. What did he know about allegations of excessive force and serious injuries, how were those complaints investigated, and what corrective action was taken, if any?
Changing the name on the sheriff’s office door does not change an institution. Accountability means examining what went wrong and ensuring the next administration does not simply inherit and continue those failures. Apple leaving cannot and will not become the reform we are calling for.
Will the Next Sheriff Change the Name or Change the Institution?
With Apple not seeking another term, attention turns to who will lead the Albany County Sheriff’s Office next. Bethlehem Police Chief Gina Cocchiara has announced her candidacy and has said incarcerated people are not second-class citizens and deserve respect. She has also described Apple as a role model and praised his leadership and integrity. What would she preserve, and what would she change?
If elected will she independently examine use-of-force practices, legal access, grievances, body-camera compliance and allegations of retaliation? Will she support independent civilian oversight? Will Superintendent Michael Lyons and the existing command structure remain in place? Cocchiara should not be held responsible for decisions made before she has even been elected, but anyone seeking this powerful office should be prepared to answer these questions.
If the sheriff changes but the leadership, policies and culture remain intact, what exactly changed?
This History Didn’t Just Begin in 2025
The allegations at the Albany County Correctional Facility did not begin with this latest lawsuit. In 2019, litigation involving four men transferred from Rikers Island who alleged beatings, sexual assault and other mistreatment ended in a settlement approaching $1 million. In 2021, Albany County authorized another $750,000 settlement involving 11 men transferred from Rikers who alleged abuse by Albany County correction officers.
Settlements are not admissions of wrongdoing. But when similar allegations surface across different years and involve different incarcerated people, at what point do we stop calling them isolated incidents and start examining the institution itself?
Albany Officers are Accused of Taking the Violence Somewhere Else
In 2025, eight men incarcerated in Oneida County sued Albany County, alleging Albany County correction officers brutally assaulted them during a jail shakedown. The Oneida County Sheriff’s Office had asked the Albany County Sheriff’s Office to send its Correctional Emergency Response Team (CERT) to assist with the shakedown. One officer allegedly said, “this is how Albany gets down.”
If these allegations are true, what does that say about the culture of violence those officers brought with them from Albany?
Our Emails Stopped Getting Through
At one point during our advocacy around correctional officer violence at the Albany County Correctional Facility, even our emails to county legislators stopped getting through. We were actively trying to keep legislators informed about what was happening inside the jail, and suddenly our ability to communicate with them was blocked. It left us wondering whether information we were bringing forward was being kept from reaching the full Legislature.
Republican Albany County Legislator Paul Burgdorf helped us test what was happening. Pastor Jim Ketchum of the New York State Council of Churches and I, Roni Minter of the Freedom Unshackled Coalition, each sent Burgdorf emails to determine whether our communications were reaching county legislators. They were not. Burgdorf confirmed the problem himself, writing, “Evidently I am blocked as well,” and insisting, “I want ALL MY Mail, regardless of whether or not I agree with the subject.”
The problem was miraculously resolved, but the larger question never was: Who blocked those communications, why were they blocked, and who decided what information county legislators should or should not receive?
Who Is Accountable When Everyone Says It’s Someone Else’s Job?
We repeatedly brought these concerns to Albany County legislators through emails, meetings and public testimony. The Legislature may not run the jail, but it controls public dollars, approves settlements and can demand answers.
When allegations of abuse repeatedly end in lawsuits and settlements, how many checks should the public be expected to pay before elected officials demand that something inside the institution actually change? In Albany County and in counties across New York State, these are the people’s tax dollars being used to pay the financial consequences of correction officers’ violent behavior.
Independent Oversight Must Be the Next Step
Albany County is not alone. Suffolk County has faced major litigation over conditions in its jails, including a settlement requiring up to $18 million and facility improvements. Erie County spent years under federal scrutiny after the U.S. Department of Justice identified serious constitutional concerns involving violence, medical and mental-health care, suicide prevention and safety. These problems are bigger than one sheriff or one county.
That is why Assemblymember Gabriella Romero and Senator Julia Salazar introduced A.9617/S.8856, legislation that would require counties across New York to establish civilian complaint review boards.
This is the independent oversight our coalition has been calling for. When the same problems keep surfacing in county jails across New York, allowing institutions accused of misconduct to police themselves is no longer enough.
Incarceration Is Not a License to Abuse
Now, Cory Thompson, Jai-Ream Daniels, Isiah Parker-Bagaba and Jermaine Brown are asking a federal court to examine what they say happened to them inside the Albany County Correctional Facility. Their allegations will be tested through the legal process, but the concerns surrounding this facility existed long before this lawsuit was filed. The Freedom Unshackled Coalition and the Center for Law and Justice continue to receive calls from incarcerated people and their families about abuse and the conditions at the jail. Two weeks ago, one parent called us describing what had allegedly been done to their incarcerated child, treatment that can only be described as a form of waterboarding.
A judge does not send or remand someone to jail to be beaten, sexually abused, medically neglected, retaliated against or denied meaningful access to counsel. Incarceration does not erase humanity. Incarceration is not a license to abuse.
Albany County was warned. Now some of those warnings have reached federal court.
The question is what happens next.