“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...