The Open Philanthropy Project recommended a gift of $50,000 to the Center for Justice at Columbia University’s School of Social Work to support its 2018 Beyond the Bars Conference. Beyond the Bars is an annual interdisciplinary conference on mass incarceration that brings together stakeholders, including formerly incarcerated individuals and community organizations, interested in ending mass incarceration and promoting justice and equity. Open Philanthropy's Program Officer for Criminal Justice Reform, Chloe Cockburn, has attended the conference in the past and is particularly impressed by Columbia University’s interdisciplinary approach to studying mass incarceration.
This gift falls within Open Philanthropy's work on criminal justice reform.