The Freedom Unshackled Coalition

10/01/2026

We cannot have an honest conversation about parole justice without talking about the economy that has been built around incarceration.

We cannot have an honest conversation about parole justice without talking about the economy that has been built around incarceration.

09/28/2026

For more than a year, Freedom Unshackled Coalition, NAACP Albany, Capital Area Urban League, The Center for Law and Justice, NYS Council of Churches, AVillage, Bridge Tha Gap, One Hundred Black Men, and our community partners brought names, injuries, videos, complaints and families directly to Sheriff Craig Apple and the Albany County Legislature.

We were dismissed. We were told there was no systemic problem. We were treated as though we were exaggerating what was happening inside the Albany County Correctional Facility.
Well, here we are.

Four of the people whose names and cases WE brought directly to county officials are now involved in litigation in federal court.

Leonardo Guzman is one of them. We raised what happened to him when it happened. Now his allegations are laid out in a federal lawsuit.

And before the conversation gets redirected toward Mr. Guzman’s crime, let us be very clear: regardless of what a person is accused of, regardless of what they have been convicted of, being brutally beaten by correction officers is not part of their sentence.

Correction officers are charged with care, custody and control. A jail is not a place where officers get to impose additional punishment with their fists, feet or pepper spray. Accountability for a crime happens through the courts. Brutality by correction officers is not accountability. These Correctional Officers are in fact committed crimes.

These lawsuits didn't introduce us to these names. We brought these names to Sheriff Apple and Albany County legislators before they ever appeared in federal court.

So at some point, Albany County has to answer a very simple question:
How many people have to end up in federal court before you acknowledge that the people you dismissed were telling you something was seriously wrong? We told you. You chose not to listen.

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Former Albany County jail incarcerated man claims officers beat him for complaining

A former inmate at Albany County jail alleges in a federal lawsuit that he suffered a concussion and other injuries when a “gang of jail officers” assaulted him last year.

09/24/2026

09/23/2026

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Freedom Unshackled is a grassroots organization focused on addressing challenges of racial discrimination and gender inequity within the criminal justice system. We accomplish this by confronting elected officials and advocating for the voiceless.

09/23/2026

From arrest to incarceration, release and reentry, women remain an afterthought- even in the movement fighting for their freedom.

From arrest to incarceration, release and reentry, women remain an afterthought- even in the movement fighting for their freedom.

09/16/2026

We are counted when our presence serves a government purpose, then forgotten when our humanity demands attention. Incarcerated people are not throwaways. The sentence is the punishment, not a license for abuse.
Our latest Substack: The Community We Conveniently Forget.

Counted for population, forgotten in conversations about justice, and treated as disposable. Incarcerated people are not outside our communities. They are our communities.

09/09/2026

If the people we claim to fight for cannot see or feel the difference, what exactly are we measuring?

If the people we claim to fight for cannot see or feel the difference, what exactly are we measuring?

09/09/2026

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.

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,

09/09/2026

Welcome to Freedom Unshackled
Where lived experiences meets advocacy, accountability, and the fight to keep humanity at the center of criminal justice.

Where lived experiences meets advocacy, accountability, and the fight to keep humanity at the center of criminal justice.