This event is organized by Columbia Center for Justice.

The Beyond the Bars Conference is an annual student-driven interdisciplinary community building conference on mass incarceration and criminalization held at Columbia University. Each year the conference brings together students, faculty, activists, advocates, practitioners, those who have experienced and/or been impacted by incarceration, community members and more to connect, galvanize, and deepen the work of building justice and equity and ending mass incarceration.

This year's conference theme is "Rooted In...". Together we will explore what it means to be rooted: in our communities, building networks of care that endure; in our history of resistance, drawing wisdom from those who came before us; and in global solidarity, linking struggles across borders through shared care and collective power. Times of uncertainty, instability, and unrest have always produced powerful art, transformative ideas, and movements that shape history. In uncertain times, staying rooted—emotionally, physically, spiritually, and mentally—keeps us connected to what sustains us while opening pathways to new skills and strategies. Like the roots of trees in a forest, we must connect our communities locally and globally, sharing resources and strength to withstand ongoing oppression.