Beyond the Bars
Beyond the Bars: Transforming (In)Justice
The Beyond the Bars Organizing Team (The Criminal Justice Caucus, the Center for Justice at Columbia University and the Beyond the Bars Fellows)
BEYOND THE BARS: TRANSFORMING (IN)JUSTICE is
the fifth annual student-driven interdisciplinary conference on mass
incarceration held at Columbia University. Given the greater
consciousness of mass incarceration in the US, this conference brings
people from different spaces and places to dig deeper in the work of
ending mass incarceration, building justice and engaging in action
beyond the weekend.
The
conference launches Friday night with Michelle Alexander and several
other powerful guest speakers and performances. It continues into
Saturday with the goal of developing an agenda for transformative change
around mass incarceration. Panelists are coming from a wide range of
disciplines, experiences and locations; from government and
community-based organizations, to advocates and activists, to students,
faculty and community members and to those most directly impacted by
mass incarceration who are in all of these roles including formerly
incarcerated people and their families. The conference concludes on
Sunday with an afternoon of organizing workshops led by several
grassroots groups working for change.
This
year’s Beyond the Bars conference will focus on the idea of
transformation. The questions this conference will pose are: How do we
work towards lasting transformative change? How do we develop a
framework for changing the way our country seeks justice that does not
perpetuate the roots of the problems that have led us here? How do we
create change that addresses the systemic marginalization while also
addressing the need for individual accountability and the safety of our
communities and our society? What is a transformative agenda for
changing the way we seek justice?
The conference launches Friday night with Michelle Alexander and several other powerful guest speakers and performances. It continues into Saturday with the goal of developing an agenda for transformative change around mass incarceration. Panelists are coming from a wide range of disciplines, experiences and locations; from government and community-based organizations, to advocates and activists, to students, faculty and community members and to those most directly impacted by mass incarceration who are in all of these roles including formerly incarcerated people and their families. The conference concludes on Sunday with an afternoon of organizing workshops led by several grassroots groups working for change.
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