"Beyond the Bars" builds empathy for the justice-impacted

By Logan Langlois

NASHVILLE, TN — “Beyond the Bars’’ is a first-of-its-kind, app-enabled escape room that puts participants in the shoes of one of the 80 million Americans navigating today’s already tumultuous job market with an arrest or charge on their record. In the escape room that debuted Sunday at Austin Texas’s SXSW, participants are charged with navigating the various pitfalls that prevent people from securing life-changing employment. Ken Oliver, the man who took the SXSW stage to announce Beyond the Bars’ debut alongside his employer Checkr, said Beyond the Bars is meant to build empathy for workers who are justice-impacted.

Oliver said the idea originated within the United States Justice Department 12 years ago with more analog ideas such as those using card tables. He said that he and Checkr, America’s largest background-checking company, felt the escape room fad sweeping the nation would provide the perfect platform for them to exemplify their message.

“It makes it very frustrating when you’ve made a mistake in your life and then you’re perpetually being defined by this scarlet letter that follows you in perpetuity in many cases,” Oliver said.

Oliver said that 80 percent of the participants end up failing the escape room, which mirrors the 83 percent of people who get re-arrested over nine years after being first justice-impacted. He said this perpetual re-arresting can exacerbate other problems as those caught in the system are unable to lift themselves out of poverty.

“The pathway to safer communities, safer streets, and decarceration is providing people opportunity to access livable wage, jobs, careers, and economic mobility,” Oliver said. “When people have access to those type of incomes at the middle-class economy, they tend not to do a lot of the things that cause people to go to prison in the first place.”

Oliver said justice-impacted people have a difficult time in other facets of life, such as obtaining skill licensing and general housing. He said that for many in the job and housing institutions, the sight of an arrest record is an immediate barring from entry. Oliver said in our current capitalist economy where people need money to survive, barring people from meeting their basic needs pushes them further to the edge of society.

Oliver said effectively opening the job market for the justice-impacted who currently have a 30 percent unemployment rate would work to alleviate the current underemployment strain. He said aside from the obvious relief of butts filling seats, the data shows that justice-impacted workers are also shown to be far more loyal and less likely to leave a place of employment. This is something that could be of great value to employers, who are currently facing high turnover rates due to baby boomers reaching retirement age and millennials currently changing jobs every two to three years.

“If you’re not one of the cool kids, and you’re invited in the popular crowd, chances are you’re going to be the most loyal person in that crowd,” Oliver said.

Oliver said Checkr is leading by example in the change he wants to see, with a staff consisting of 6 percent of law-impacted staff. He said whenever Checkr receives a justice-impacted applicant, they review the entirety of the candidate to see if they would be a good fit for the position and whether the crime on their record has anything to do with the position itself. Oliver said people can follow him at https://www.linkedin.com/in/kengoliver/, reach out on the Checkr website info page checkr.org.