Lane Garrison Begins Speaking Out About Manslaughter Imprisonment

Lane Garrison was a rising star after appearing on the TV show Prison Break, however the actor was sentenced to prison after a 2006 DUI accident left a 17-year-old boy dead. After serving 22 months in prison Garrison is now speaking out about his time behind bars as well as the passing of his friend who was also killed in the accident.

Garrison tells The Today Show’s Matt Lauer:

“You have to trust that one of these guys, when you close your eyes, isn’t just going to wake up in the middle of the night, pull you off your rack and beat you with a lock or stab you.”

“If you speak to anyone who’s ever done time, the fact that you make it out of there alive is a miracle. It’s like a bomb went off inside; it’s your worst nightmare,. Your hardcore gang members are there, and the guards are pretty hard there as well. I probably saw about 300 fights; I had a bunkie who was killed; I saw people stabbed,” he added. “I’d be sitting there on the yard and someone sitting right next to me would literally just get clocked and I was never touched. It’s by the grace of God that I’m sitting here with you today.”

Lane also spoke about the night of the accident:

“[That night] was a night of bad decisions. I had two drinks, downed two shots…bottom line, I should’ve never been at that party; I should’ve never had drinks in my system; I should’ve never drove. I think for me I’d been through so much; I’d just lost both my parents, and I felt like, nothing else bad can happen. The message is simple here – with drinking and driving, most people don’t have an intent to hurt somebody, but it happens and it can happen to anybody.”

While Garrison was released in 2009, he decided to start speaking now because:

“I grew up learning from a father who said when you make a mistake or you make a bad decision, you man up and take responsibility. The minute I decided to plead guilty was the minute that everything changed in my life. Going through 8 prisons, I never thought I’d make it out to see another set. I’m fortunate enough to get a second chance when a young man doesn’t have one, so I’m going to make the most of it.”

Garrison is acting once again, most recently on an episode of NBC’sThe Event.