Families of incarcerated call for justice amid prison protests

ALBANY, N.Y. (NEWS10) – As corrections officers demonstrate across upstate correctional facilities, family members of incarcerated individuals gathered at the capital and called for justice. They want to shed light on, what they called, ongoing brutality behind bars.

On Thursday the indictment in the Robert Brooks murder was unsealed. It details the charges against 10 corrections officers over the homicide of Brooks, who was killed while he was moved for a routine medical exam. 

Instead of receiving care, the indictment said, officers held Brooks down and beat, choked, gagged and kicked him. “As a result Mr. Brooks suffered injuries to his head, neck, hyoid bone, thyroid cartilage, torso, liver, spleen and testicles as well as having his air passages restricted and choking on his own blood, thereby resulting in his death.”

Dozens of people gathered in the concourse for their incarcerated loved ones. Many are missing a father, a husband, a fiancé, a niece – just to name a few. Speakers at the rally said the Brooks homicide is just one instance of what frequently happens behind bars.

Shawn Young spent eight years at the Eastern Correctional Facility before his conviction was overturned.

“The messaging is always very clear about who a person is as a prisoner inside. You do not matter here. You’re not as valuable here. And what we say goes here. It is extreme power and control at every aspect and walk of life,” said Young. “That you matter little and that your voice is not powerful and that you can be assaulted. You can be abused and there’s nothing you can really do about that.”

Their lives are devalued behind bars, he said, and it’s hard to rehabilitate under those conditions.

“And that messaging has a deteriorating effect. Not just on the person that’s been the subject of it but on the entire culture of the prison itself,” said Young.

He said too many in law-enforcement feel like anything goes and he hopes the Brooks case and the statewide strikes will be used to change that culture. 

Young was released in 2019 and co-founded All of Us Community Action Group, a grassroots organization that fights for black liberation, working to get incarcerated individuals basic human rights. 

It’s something TeAna Taylor has been working for. She’s the associate director at Release Aging People in Prison (R.A.P.P.). Her dad has been in prison for the last 20 years, since she was 10. Right now she said…

“People need access to their families and connection to the outside world. And people need an end to brutality. At some of these facilities, including my dad’s at Eastern, we are unsure if they’re going to continue to have access to the outside community and we have no idea if that’s going to cause more brutality,” said Taylor. 

Young, and others at Thursday's rally, said bringing in the National Guard may make a volatile situation even worse.

“When we’re talking about the militarism of sending in the National Guard and the crisis that was manufactured by the corrections officers, it’s a situation that leaves everyone in danger and it’s another example of officers taking matters into their own hands,” said Young.

Families said the prison protests undermines the brutality and inhumane conditions many inmates are suffering. 

“It shows, once again, that our incarcerated individuals their lives do not matter to these correctional officers,” said Taylor. 

Visitation at all state prisons has been temporarily halted. Legacie Wright and Selena Bronson said they don’t know when they’ll get to see their loved ones again. 

“Right now it’s up in the wind. Like I should be going this Saturday, but we don’t know because of the strike,” said Wright.

Her fiancé is incarcerated at Washington Correctional Facility. Bronson echoed those concerns, her husband has been incarcerated for 24 years at Green Haven Correctional Facility. 

“We need our visits back. I need to be able to go see my husband and hug him and everything,” said Bronson.

They said they want an end to brutality and sexual violence for both men and women. They claim the recent demonstrations have impacted meals and medical car. They want a number of inmate rights’ bills passed, including parole bills.

Wright said it’s not just those behind bars who are impacted. She said it has a reverberating effect on entire families and communities.

“We are working on his third parole hearing and it impacts everybody, his children, grandchildren, myself, my son. The visits are scarce. They’re not family oriented. There’s a time limit on everything,” said Wright.

“All this needs to stop. They don’t want to – the C.O.’s don’t want to come to work. Find another job. Somebody else can do their job. This is just crazy,” said Bronson.