Registration is Now Open for Beyond the Bars 2025!

January 16, 2025

The 2025 Beyond the Bars Conference is March 6–9 and will focus on the theme Sankofa–looking back to move forward. 

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BEYOND THE BARS 2025: CELEBRATING 15 YEARS!

In 2025, we are celebrating our 15th Beyond the Bars Conference! The idea for the conference first came from Tanisha “Wakumi” Douglas who was a student at Columbia School of Social Work and was a leader in the Criminal Justice Caucus. Wakumi, whose father had been incarcerated for many decades, including at the time of the first conference, ended up working with Kathy and Cheryl to develop and implement the conference. The first conference was one day on January 29th, 2011, and focused primarily on social workers developing skills to address the ripple effects of incarceration. Since then, the conference has grown in so many incredible ways and we are excited to reminisce together on how the conference has made an impact on attendees and our larger communities and has built a national and international movement.

THEME: SANKOFA: LOOKING BACK TO MOVE FORWARD

This year, we will feature topics discussed at Beyond the Bars over the past 15 years and also envision the future of our movement together. The Beyond the Bars 2025 theme is “Sankofa”- looking back to move forward. Other definitions say "looking back to retrieve that which is at risk of being left behind." In our current times, it is so important that we look back at and preserve our histories and how our ancestors and those who have come before us have succeeded in organizing, advocating, and taking care of their community when systems of oppression seemed too overpowering. So much knowledge has been shared throughout the 15 years of Beyond the Bars and we hope to capture and preserve that through our plenaries, workshops, art displays, and more. If you have memories, photos, videos, etc from previous Beyond the Bars Conferences, please submit them here.

At this year’s conference, as we have done at many past conferences, we especially want to highlight the contributions of women, femmes, non-binary, and trans people who have led the way towards liberation for centuries but whose inspiring work is often overlooked or co-opted. We hope the conference serves as a catalyst to continue to follow their leadership through these tumultuous times and into an uncertain future.

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