Green Bay inmate uses art and writing to help youth make better choices

DarRen Morris is serving a life sentence at the Green Bay Correctional Institution. Morris now uses his free time to inspire youth going down the wrong path to make better choices through his art and writing.

In 1994 DarRen Morris was convicted of being a party to first degree intentional homicide at the age of 17. To tell his story, Morris wrote a book called ‘In Warm Blood,’ with his co-author Judith Adrian.

“To me he stands as a metaphor for the 2.5 million people we have locked up in this country, so it's telling one person's story who's inside and helping us better understand that there are human people inside, and they may be behind us in the line at the grocery store tomorrow,” said Adrian.

A once former hustler and gang member, Morris now uses his time in prison to paint. Morris says when he's immersed in his paintings, “his cellmate doesn't exist” and “he's not in prison.” Painting is a method of therapy for Morris.

"Just like writing, I think you can actually not be surrounded by cell walls when you're in the creative act," said Karon Winzenz, artist and event organizer.

DarRen Morris donates his works of art because he cannot sell them, he gives them out to prison projects to help youth and returning prisoners from making bad choices.

Adrian tells Morris' story in an exhibit called ‘Art and Redemption,’ which was on display in Door County.

"What DarRen and I are trying to do in the book is to look at the humanity within every person, so even if someone has made a profoundly negative thing happen, in this case it was a loss of a life, there's still a human being in there," said Adrian.

Morris says inspiration for his art stem from "the wounds of his life."

"This man is incredible, for all the stuff that's happened to him over his lifetime that he is compassionate and that he cares about other people, and that he's concerned about making sure that kids don't do what he did," said Winzenz.

For more information visit