The Incarcerated Soul

On Thursday March 17, our English 102 class attended the presentation of fellow nursing students and two guests, Mr. Panayati and Mr. Lewis. Both men were sentenced up to 11 years in prison. Mr. Panayati served time in a medium security prison for committing robbery. For Panayati, serving time has allowed him to further his limited education prior to being incarcerated by reading more books about law which was his main interest and reading kept him sane during the time spent at the prison. Unlike Panayati, Mr. Lewis was accused of murder when he was driving a vehicle while someone was murdered in the back seat. Lewis served his time in a maximum security prison in which he was kept in his cell for 23 hours a day, had no access to books or any other limited entertainment. During the presentation, I noticed that Mr. Lewis's main regret is putting the stress and deception upon his family. While Lewis served 11 years in prison, his family was serving time with him as well, but not literally. The death of his mother made it very hard for Lewis to keep going day by day. As stated in the presentation, "I wanted to eliminate myself because I was nothing without my mother." Mr. Lewis said. Both Panayati and Lewis's experiences in prison were excruciating, especially dealing with death of a loved one during the time being. But, they both came to forgiveness at some point. It wasn't easy, but not impossible. They're both currently employed and trying to make up for the time lost.