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.

THIS YEAR’S THEME

As we are celebrating 15 YEARS of Beyond the Bars Conferences, this year’s theme is Sankofa:

SAN (return)
KO (go)
FA (look, seek, and take)

Remembering our past, to protect our future! There must be movement and new learning as time passes. Our past provides the knowledge, lessons, and strategies gained through our fight for freedom and full-citizenship which enables us to develop stronger strategies and tactics in our current movement.

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. 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.

Registration is free and open to the public. Register here

FAQs about the conference

Schedule