Patricia Ryan holds a flower made of toilet paper left on her desk by an inmate after one of her classes. / Jordan Kartholl/ The Star Press
MUNCIE — Former Ball State University instructor Mike Morton saw a lot of angry young men during the 16 years he taught inside the state’s prisons.
He witnessed stabbings and a prisoner crushing another prisoner’s skull with a miniature golf club during gym riots.
The only thing that would eliminate the anger was either the passage of time or earning a college education, said Morton, who had been a wellness instructor.
“You have young men who are angry at society, who don’t work, who want something for nothing, and when they get to prison it’s living in a ghetto,” Morton said. “It might take until their senior year, but a college education made even the most hardened, angry young men settle down. They grow up. They accept reality. It’s an amazing change.”
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