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  • CAREER COLUMN

Our experience of teaching neuroscience in a maximum-security prison

Making our way through security each week is a slog, but teaching incarcerated people has been an incredible career experience.
By
  1. Tessa Montague

    1. Tessa Montague is a neuroscientist at the Zuckerman Mind Brain Behavior Institute of Columbia University, New York.

  2. Shai Berman

    1. Shai Berman is a neuroscientist at the Zuckerman Mind Brain Behavior Institute of Columbia University, New York.

Fifty minutes north of Manhattan by train lies Sing Sing Correctional Facility, a maximum-security prison for men. Sing Sing is one of the oldest and most notorious prisons in the United States. Its massive stone blocks and barbed-wire fences sit on a hill overlooking the Hudson Valley. Beyond its heavy metal gates is a group of students, largely invisible to the rest of the country, earning their undergraduate degrees. Every Monday afternoon, the two of us take the train, pass through those gates, and spend two hours teaching an “introduction to neuroscience” class to those students.

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doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-025-00208-x

This is an article from the Nature Careers Community, a place for Nature readers to share their professional experiences and advice. Guest posts are encouraged.

Competing Interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

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