Unchained uplifts incarcerated voices, talks prison abolition advocacy
Unchained is Syracuse's only prison abolition activist group. On Sunday afternoon, the organization provided an introduction to the nonprofit’s work through tabling, allowing attendees to hear directly from those impacted. Avery Magee | Asst. Photo Editor
Get the latest Syracuse news delivered right to your inbox.
Subscribe to our newsletter here.
At the Dunbar Community Center on Sunday afternoon, the organization Unchained encouraged members of the Syracuse community to engage in prison abolition activism to enact change. Attendees heard directly from people impacted by the prison system, who shared personal stories and experiences with incarceration and explained past policy work and education they impacted.
As Syracuse’s only prison abolition activist group, Unchained, a nonprofit organization, aims to dismantle the prison system and give access to education about prison abolition. Emily NaPier Singletary, Unchained’s co-founder and co-executive director, said she focuses on providing every person with the resources, education and advocacy necessary to thrive without turning to crime.
“Everything that we work on, we try and frame that as something that moves us closer to a world where we don’t need to have prisons,” NaPier Singletary said. “That’s obviously not something that’s going to happen overnight…but that’s the goal we’re always working towards, getting us closer to a world without prisons.”
NaPier Singletary founded Unchained in 2018 with her husband, Derek Singletary, after learning firsthand about the harmful impacts of the prison system. NaPier Singletary, who previously worked in prison abolition advocacy, met her husband eight years into his incarceration. The pair got married in 2017, and although Singletary remains in prison, they continue to advocate for prison reform, with the goal of total abolishment.
NaPier Singletary said prison abolition approaches the incarceration system holistically, rather than looking at abolishment as creating a world without prisons. Over the last 40 years, the United States has seen a 500% increase in its total prison and jail population, which now totals nearly 2 million people, according to the Sentencing Project.
While NaPier Singletary said she doesn’t expect to see complete prison abolition within her lifetime, she said the work she and her husband do through Unchained aims to improve life for people who are currently “trapped” in the system.
Singletary, who joined his wife at the event via phone call, said one of the most important things to remember in abolitionist work is listening to those directly impacted.
He emphasized the importance of continuing to pay attention to officer brutality within prisons, referencing the deaths of Messiah Nantwi and Robert Brooks, which both occurred during their incarcerations.
“I know that the system seems to be very much turned against you as an incarcerated individual,” Singletary said. “It’s not really tailored for rehabilitation, so I think any efforts to reform, or advocate for change, as the rehabilitation is concerned, I think is valid.”
Unchained’s members provide firsthand accounts to help create and eventually pass legislation, NaPier Singletary said.
In 2018, the nonprofit began working to pass the Less is More Act. The legislation, signed into state law by Gov. Kathy Hochul in September 2021, aims to improve the lives of people within the prison system. It specifically targets the parole system by giving grace on certain requirements for parolees so they don’t fall back into the incarceration cycle.
Avery Magee | Asst. Photo Editor
Emily NaPier Singletary founded Unchained in 2018 with her husband, Derek Singletary, after learning firsthand about the harmful impacts of the prison system. She first met her husband eight years into his incarceration.
Daquan Noel, a member of Unchained who experienced incarceration and parole, said the act is what first drew him to join the group. Noel said while on parole in November 2019, his attorney showed him the initial act, which inspired him to study it like “the back of his hand.”
The law, now gaining national attention, allows New York state prisons to provide flexibility for people on parole.. The act is considerate of people struggling with addiction and is more lenient for people who may miss a curfew with their parole officer.
“We’re all human. It happens, and you can (violate parole and be) sent back to prison for one, two or three years,” Noel said. “I don’t think it’s part of society’s goals that they want for somebody reentering into society.”
Noel said when someone is sent to prison, it costs taxpayers about $100,000 per inmate, per year, which he said emphasizes the need for prison abolition.
Members of Unchained are also working on passing other legislation, such as the Unemployment Bridge. Jessie Anderson, an Unchained member, said the act would provide people leaving the prison system with an unemployment salary for the first six months after their release. She said the bill is geared toward migrant workers, Uber and Lyft drivers, construction workers and anyone else who doesn’t fall under the traditional requirements for conditional unemployment.
Anderson said the organization is working toward passing the bill at the state level, and eventually at the federal level. Under President Donald Trump’s administration, she said advocating for prison reform is a top priority.
“If we look back at the history of this country … (through) the philosophy of ‘Make America Great Again,’ when was it great, and who was it great for?” NaPier Singletary said.
Amid the administration’s changing laws impacting the prison system, Anderson said the current situation mirrors when abolitionist groups were founded in the first place. NaPier Singletary said under Trump’s administration, she sees advocating for a system that suits everyone’s basic needs as an integral part of Unchained’s work.
For community members interested in abolitionist work, Noel encouraged people to continue to “carry that torch” and get involved with organizations like Unchained to make real change.
“I don’t have to do this. My time has been up,” Noel said. “But I wouldn’t have been able to do that had somebody else not cared enough to put that type of effort and … humanize me to people that might not have recognized that I’m just like you.”
