Harry E. Hanners, 40, is a onetime Manhattan adman who suffered a spinal disease for five years. A painkilling drug led to his addiction and a six-month sentence in Long Island's Nassau County Jail.
From the vantage point of his own cell, Hanners watched teen-age inmates wallowing in idleness, and soon got permission from enlightened Warden Edward O'Hara to start a school. Hanners cajoled books out of the Book-of-the-Month Club, 38 unmatched desks out of local schools. A born teacher, he encouraged his students to discuss everything from Plato to Shakespeare to current events.
Stirred out of their torpor, the boys leaped to...
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