We are workers with records in Florida building power together to transform industries that rely on our labor and open new doors to those we’ve long been excluded from.

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What we do

Worker Organizing

We organize criminalized workers to take collective action in industries that rely on our labor, building strategic campaigns to shift power in those industries.

Worker Education

We host workshops to increase workers' understanding of their rights and develop strategies to vindicate them, improving wages and work conditions.

Worker Advocacy

We advocate at federal, state, and local levels to expand labor protections, ensure enforcement of existing laws, and increase workers' access to quality jobs.

Worker Support

We host poetry classes, socials, and wellness circles for our members and work with partner organizations to help criminalized workers get the help they need.

Cross Movement Solidarity

When labor and criminal justice organizations unite, working conditions improve for all. We bridge movements, expanding labor's role in carceral reform.

Worker Research

We use participatory research to strengthen our corporate campaigns and educate stakeholders on how the carceral-labor continuum impacts our work.

In the News

Worker advocates kill Florida bill that would have eliminated labor protections for one million temp workers

May 6, 2025

These formerly incarcerated workers took on Florida’s most powerful lobbyist and won.

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Building Bridges and Erasing Jail Debt: Katherine Passley

May 1, 2025

The winner of our Labor Organizer of the Year Award co-runs a member-led worker center for people with criminal records — the first of its kind in the country.

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From Permanent Precarity to Permanent Power

May 1, 2025

At Beyond the Bars, we see what others refuse to see: the talent, discipline and vision of the criminalized working class.

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How Miami-Dade County Led on Fee Elimination

Apr. 23, 2024

Beyond the Bars organizers and local government leaders discuss how they eliminated $10 million in jail fees and $100 million in jail debt.

Watch the video

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