Beyond the Bars Maine 2025 Recap
Members of our staff and our Right/Write to Heal group spent the last week in Maine supporting the Beyond the Bars Conference hosted by Opportunity Scholars and Center for Effective Public Policy.
Members of our staff and our Right/Write to Heal group spent the last week in Maine supporting the Beyond the Bars Conference hosted by the Opportunity Scholars and the Center for Effective Public Policy. Since we started the Beyond the Bars Conference 15 years ago, partners in various states and countries have been inspired to host a version of the conference in their hometowns.
The week started with a visit to the Maine Correctional Facility, a women's prison outside of Portland. The women participated in a program called Justice By Design, where they learned to code and were tasked with creating apps and websites that would address a social justice issue of their choice. The women chose issues that had personally impacted them and in just three months, created app and website demos to present to potential investors. Our staff and guests encouraged the women during their presentations and were also given time to give the women feedback. We left feeling inspired, amazed, and even more dedicated to uplifting the brilliance of women who are behind bars.
On Thursday, the conference kicked off at the University of Southern Maine, where our co-director Cheryl Wilkins spoke on a panel about gender justice.
The unique traits women bring to gender justice is that we are not trying to be millionaires. One thing about us, we will organize around a kitchen table. We don't care about anything else but the impact of the injustices that are excluding us as human beings.
After the panel, our Policy and Communications Manager Melissa Tanis presented a workshop about our Justice Beyond Punishment Collaborative and utilized the Freedom for All zine that the Collaborative created to guide the conversation around moving our narratives past punitive approaches and towards more inclusive messaging.
Later that night, Beyond the Bars Maine hosted their annual Abolition Night, a night of performances by people impacted by incarceration. Our Right/Write to Heal group closed the night with an incredible performance of Uhuru Sasa Reimagined, a recent project they have been working on in collaboration with Chesray Dolpha and Stacey Scott. Uhuru Sasa Reimagined shares the stories of the women's resilience before, during, and after incarceration and incorporates music, props, movement, and monologues. The women were met with a standing ovation and led the crowd in a chant to free the women inside Maine prisons.
Friday closed the conference with a Youth Justice panel and breakout sessions before we headed back home to New York.
In between the conference times, we were able to take in the beauty of nature, explore Portland, and enjoy the healing elements incorporated into the conference including massage and reiki.
We love how much the Beyond the Bars Conference has grown and is now being replicated in other states and across the world. Thank you to all who support this conference and our Right/Write to Heal Initiative! Special shout out to Erica King for all her work to bring this conference to Maine and to support the women incarcerated there.
