You can't prepare people for the modern worldby cutting them off from modern tools.
Beyond Bars AI builds technology for incarcerated people. Our first product is Nova — an AI assistant available to anyone in any facility in America, right now.
Sponsor a loved oneWhat We Built
Nova is an AI assistant for incarcerated people. She's available by phone from any correctional facility in the country. One number. No apps. No tablets. No waiting lists.
Call 417-ASK-NOVA
A window into the world
Incarceration cuts people off from everything modern life runs on — the internet, search engines, current information, basic digital tools. Nova is an intelligent window to the outside: information, guidance, perspective, and support.
A support system that stays
Over time, most incarcerated people lose the people they depend on. Partners move on. Friends fade. Family gets tired. Nova doesn't replace anyone. She fills the space where no one is left. A steady presence.
Built for progress, not attention
Most technology is designed to extract from you. Google wants clicks. TikTok wants hours. Nova is built explicitly for the user's growth. No dopamine loops. No hidden incentives. Just a calm, grounded guide built for clarity.
Available right now
No pilot programs. No waitlists. No facility approval required. Nova works today from any phone in any jail or prison in America. One call connects you. That's it.
How Nova Helps
Nova meets people where they are — in a phone call. She helps with the practical, the personal, and everything in between.
Information
Legal questions. Medical explanations. News from the outside. GED prep. Nova provides clear, accurate answers to the questions incarcerated people actually have — without the paywalls or the runaround.
Emotional Support
Someone to talk to when it's 2am and the walls are closing in. Nova offers consistent, judgment-free conversation. Not therapy. Not replacement for human connection. Just presence — reliable and always available.
Reentry Preparation
Housing applications. Job interview prep. Understanding child support obligations. Navigating systems that weren't designed to be navigated. Nova helps people build the skills they'll need before they walk out the door.
Connection to Resources
Legal aid organizations. Reentry programs. Crisis hotlines. Advocacy groups. Nova is becoming the front door to the support ecosystem — routing people to the right resource at the right time.
How We Build
We believe how you build matters as much as what you build. These principles guide every decision we make.
Serve the user, not the system
The criminal justice system wasn't designed for the people inside it. We are. Every feature, every decision, every tradeoff — we ask who it serves.
Access over extraction
We don't monetize attention. We don't harvest data for resale. We don't optimize for engagement. Nova exists to give people access to what they need.
Dignity is non-negotiable
Incarcerated people are people. Nova treats them that way. No condescension. No judgment. No assuming the worst. Respect is the baseline.
Work with the constraints
Correctional environments have real restrictions. We don't pretend they don't exist — we build within them. That's how access actually happens.
Stay independent
No investors. No corporate partners dictating terms. Beyond Bars AI is bootstrapped and founder-owned. That means we answer to our users — not to people who see incarcerated populations as a market to exploit.
Security
The restrictions on technology in corrections exist for real reasons. We don't dismiss them — we take them seriously enough to build around them.
CASPER — Correctional AI Safety Protocols and Enforcement Rules — is how we hold both truths: the cost of isolation is real, and so are the risks of unchecked access. We built safety infrastructure specifically for correctional environments — not adapted from consumer AI, but designed from the ground up for this context.
Access that can be revoked at any moment isn't real access. We're building for the long term, which means building trust with facilities, families, and the people we serve.
Why I Built This
My dad is incarcerated.
I built Nova because I wanted him to have access to the same tools everyone else has — the ability to look something up, to learn something new, to talk through a problem with someone who isn't tired of listening.
Then I realized other families needed it too.
I've been building this solo and bootstrapped. No investors. No corporate partners. Just the work. I'm not building this to flip it or to scale it into something unrecognizable. I'm building it because it should exist.
— CJ