Special Screening of Beyond the Wall

Tuesday, November 29, 2016
5:30 PM to 7:30 PM
Social Law Library, John Adams Courthouse, Boston, MA

Post Film Reception with Guests:

Jenny Phillips, director of Beyond the Wall
Louie Diaz, reentry outreach specialist at Lowell House

“No reentry program is going to go under the bridges and into the tent cities of the homeless looking for the guys who come out of jail and fall between the cracks. But if you are not willing to go to their places, they will end up back in jail.”— Louie Diaz

Beyond the Wall follows five formerly incarcerated men who are attempting to rebuild their lives on the gritty streets of Lowell, Lawrence and even gentrified Newburyport.

It humanizes the national debate over criminal justice reform, highlighting the personal challenges encountered by the flood of former prisoners into Massachusetts communities.

“About 80 percent of inmates who enter state prison report that they are addicted—whether to opioids, other drugs, or alcohol,” points out the Boston Globe’s profile of Louie Diaz, one of the ex-convicts featured in the film. “At times,” he laments, “it seems there are more people relapsing and dying then getting clean and staying out of jail.”
“Stark Reality” — Newburyport News

The film captures “the powerful emotional, financial and even spiritual challenges they face as they try to stay out of prison.” — WBUR Radio Boston


This program is made possible through the generosity of the William M. Wood Foundation, Bank of America, Trustee.

The views expressed are those of the director and guest speaker and not necessarily of the Library or the Wood Foundation. Registrants for this program acknowledge that during the program their photographic or videographic images may be incidentally taken; registrants agree that the submission of their registrations for this program constitutes their written consent to the Social Law Library’s use of any such image in print and online materials solely for promotion of the Library’s noncommercial CLE seminars and other educational events and activities.