Prison Education

Tens of thousands of those incarcerated in the U.S. are enrolled in college, but almost none have access to basic science education. This deep need for scientific literacy was one of the factors that drew me to pursue education in the prison system.

To address the obstacles of teaching STEM ‘inside’, I spent two years collaborating with prison administration and accreditors to introduce an introductory biology course into New Jersey’s maximum-security prison, working to ensure both safety and academic rigor. Working alongside a fellow graduate student, Ana Mostafavi, I went on to lead the development of three additional science courses. I have now taught a total of 16 classes within the prison system, reaching over 400 students.

My work has had significant impact on the individual and systemic levels. Through a simple wet-lab demonstration that I was able to get inside, a student serving a life-sentence had an ‘ah-ha’ moment of realization when he deduced that soap is molecularly suited to wash away fats. Like so many students, he was empowered by STEM knowledge.

While individual impact is rewarding, I have also sought to effect structural change. My efforts were included as a component of $2 million NSF grant (1931045) that aims build a sustainable model for wet labs in prisons. I continue to teach and advocate publicly for STEM education in prisons and have been interviewed by the Chronicle of Higher Education and Physics Today. I am committed to continuing this work through my position on the curriculum committee of the Prison Education Project at Washington University and my continued development and teaching of science courses.

I am often asked by colleagues why I devote some much effort to prison education, which betrays a perspective that outreach, mentoring, and teaching is charity, rather than a synergistic and necessary component of high-impact research. Of my many motivations, these sentiments capture most:

“I am, somehow, less interested in the weight and convolutions of Einstein's brain than in the near certainty that people of equal talent have lived and died in cotton fields and sweatshops.” Stephen Jay Gould

“We are told that we are our mistakes, that because of our mistakes, society will not accept us. But being part of WashU has given me a better perspective of who I am as a person and as a student.” Larry Marshell, one of my former students, at his 2022 Graduation