SANTA ANA : Ex-Con Tells Others to Seek Education

In a small office tucked away on the Rancho Santiago College campus near the cafeteria, George Morales counsels men and women who have spent time in prison and helps turn them on to college.

As an ex-con himself, Morales, 30, has earned the respect and credibility of those who have been down the same path and are now trying to straighten out their lives.

They hear of him through word of mouth after he speaks to high school and community groups. He corresponds with prisoners, encouraging them to consider college after they get out.

“I look at it this way: When you were a kid you fell down and couldn’t get up without someone coming to help you. These people have fallen real hard and it’s hard to get up and I’m the one that comes and picks them up,” he said.

Nearly a year ago, Morales was released from the California Rehabilitation Center where he served 15 months of a two-year sentence for selling the drug PCP. Before that, he said, he had taken and sold a variety of drugs and had been stabbed several times on three different occasions. One of the stabbings required two operations and was so severe that doctors asked him whether he wanted a priest to give him his last rites.

“I was in six motorcycle accidents, I’ve been addicted and all that,” he said. “There was nothing that could have stopped me (besides a serious accident) . . . I knew that there was something greater that grabbed me and picked me up.”

After his incarceration, he returned to school. He completed five classes last semester with a 4.0 grade-point average, he said. He hopes to eventually earn a master’s degree in counseling or psychology and work with drug addicts.

Last December, Morales was hired part time at the school’s Extended Opportunity Programs and Services, which helps educationally disadvantaged students.

Nellie Kaniski, student services specialist, said Morales reaches people that she and others in that office cannot.

“I cannot relate, I have not gone that route,” she said. “He’s a model for them . . . he can say, ‘Hey, I’ve been there. If I can do it, you can do it.’ ”

Some parolees come into his office already convinced that they will go to college, Morales said. But others worry about how long it will take them to get their degrees and how they will pay for the books and tuition and whether it is all worth it.

“I tell them, ‘In four years, if you don’t get your bachelor’s degree, what are you going to be doing?’ ” he said.

Darlene Alexander, 36, said Morales saved her life. She was released four months ago from the California Institute for Women on a drunk-driving conviction and met Morales at a meeting.

“I’ve been wanting to go to school, but I didn’t know how to get it started, get the applications filled and financial aid papers done,” she said.

Unemployed, Alexander said she is facing some of the same problems that contributed to her drinking when she was arrested. But this time she feels more in control of her future as she prepares to enter school in the summer, she said.

“I’ve found that everything I’ve done so far has been in my own mind. If you’re used to being lazy, unemployed and with a poor education, you will stay that way,” she said.