
Katherine Passley is co-executive director of Beyond the Bars and a recipient of In These Times’ 2025 Labor Organizer of the Year Award. Passley, who was born and raised in North Miami, joined Beyond the Bars as a founding member in 2020 after her father’s incarceration.
Passley has a bachelor’s in pre-law from Florida Memorial University and a master’s degree in criminal justice from Florida International University (where she’s now in a Ph.D. program in legal psychology). She is a poet, chaplain and restorative justice practitioner.

LaborViewpointLabor Organizer of the Year
From Permanent Precarity to Permanent Power
At Beyond the Bars, we see what others refuse to see: the talent, discipline and vision of the criminalized working class.
Katherine Passley
Announcing In These Times’ New Agreement with the National Writers Union
Freelance contributors are essential to the quality and success of In These Times and independent media, and this agreement is one way to demonstrate their value to our publication and our commitment to transparency.
For more information about the National Writers Union, visit nwu.org.
Read the full agreement, which reaffirms a floor for the rates of our freelance editorial content, as well as our current rates (which are higher) and submissions guidelines below.