Convict: "I've learned to survive"

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Shannon Siegel, who was sentenced to 7-to-21 years in prison in 1992 for the savage beating of Jermaine Ewell on the Atlantic Beach Boardwalk, is convinced that he will be released from prison soon.
      "Regardless how anybody feels, my last night in prison will be before me shortly and I leave the rest in God's hands," Mr. Siegel, 30, wrote the Nassau Herald last week in a three-page letter. In September 1999 Mr. Siegel was denied parole. His next hearing before the Parole Board is set for September 2001, according to a spokesperson for the New York State Division of Parole.
      Mr. Siegel wrote his letter in response to an article that appeared in the Nassau Herald on August 24, which profiled Mr. Ewell and his endeavor to open a music and art school for teenagers in the Five Towns. The aim of the not-for-profit school is to help develop skills and to keep youths out of trouble. Mr. Siegel crafted the letter, dated Monday, September 4, from his prison cell at Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora, New York, where he is serving his sentence. He was convicted in 1992 of leading a group of five men in the brutal baseball bat beating against Mr. Ewell on the Atlantic Beach Boardwalk, in what was described by many as a racially-tinged case.
      "I hope when he does get out, he's a changed individual," Mr. Ewell, 27, said last week when told of Mr. Siegel's letter. "I hope he can be a positive asset to society.
      "He didn't get life. He will not be in prison forever. One day he'll be out. I wish him the best." Mr. Ewell said that when Mr. Siegel came up for parole in 1999, he was called by the Parole Board. He said he took a very neutral stance and left it in their hands. "They're the experts. They see him all the time. They review him."
      Mr. Siegel said he is a changed person from the man who was arrested after leading a mob in the vicious June 1, 1991, assault.
      "I have served nearly eight years...and you know what, I'm not scared anymore," Mr. Siegel said. "I've learned to survive. While my fellow friends from the 5 Towns were going to college, getting jobs, and getting married, I was learning to survive in a Max A Prison, the worst place on Earth."
      At the age of 22, inside prison walls, he said, he was dealing with "all-out riots, inmates with home-made knives and real killers. Despite everything, I've survived and I believe that I've become a better person for it."
      He said that from behind prison walls he has managed to graduate from college and go on to become the first inmate at Clinton to earn a Master's Degree, having received a Master's in Business Administration. He added that he also has tutored many inmates and helped them earn their General Equivalency Diplomas.
      Before the baseball bat attack, Mr. Ewell said he was on track to go to the NFL after starring at Lawrence High School as a linebacker and tailback. Instead, the attack left him in a coma and fighting for his life, with disabilities that hamper him to this day.
      Mr. Siegel said he has tried to apologize to Mr. Ewell, who has been reluctant to accept Mr. Siegel's overtures of forgiveness.
      "Saying 'I'm sorry' to Jermaine was the right thing to do even if it was belated," Mr. Siegel said. "I'm smart enough to understand the politics involved in this case and I don't ever expect any favorable decision for me."
      This is the third letter Mr. Siegel has written to the Herald since he has been imprisoned, the other two coming about a year or two before he was scheduled to come before the Parole Board for the first time. He said in those letters that he was a changed person and was looking forward to becoming a productive member of society, leading his critics to believe that he was writing the letters to get an early release from prison.
      "...For those critics who claim that I'm doing this only for parole they should realize that I wasn't sentenced to life, and whether I'm granted parole or not I will be home with my family one day. I've come to accept my fate and whatever God has in store for me I accept His wisdom and His plan."
      Mr. Siegel said that after reading that Mr. Ewell is trying to raise funds for the music and art school, he would contribute $1,000. Mr. Ewell would not comment on the gesture, saying he would like to discuss it first with his attorney.
      "If Jermaine could save one 5 Towns kid from ending up where I am...then he should be encouraged to follow his dreams," Mr. Siegel said.
      "The message that I would like to convey is that sometimes good people do bad things," Mr. Siegel added. "I consider myself a good person who has made some terrible choices in my life and I am paying for them.
      "I am no longer running from that responsibility. I believe that the best message that I could ever bring to the young people that might read this is that every decision that you make has a consequence behind it."