A childhood bond inspired a college student to help free his friend from prison

By Patrice Gaines, NBC News

“It was good to hear that someone cared for me,” Sura Sohna said, “who I am and not what I did.”

What began as an independent study project for college student Brandon Harris turned into a successful effort to help his close childhood friend be released from prison 12 years before his sentence was over.

Sura Sohna, 23, had been serving a 14-year prison sentence when he received a letter from Harris. The two grew up playing video games and eating lunch together in elementary school and middle school. But Sohna’s and Harris’ lives began to diverge when they went to separate high schools. Eventually, Harris landed a scholarship to Davidson College, where he is now a senior, while Sohna had a few brushes with the law until he was sentenced to prison for first-degree burglary…

Sohna’s was the tale of a boy who grew up in poverty, experienced housing instability and hunger, wore the same clothes to school for days and often lived without electricity. While the children’s homes were 2 miles apart in Annapolis, Maryland, they lived in different worlds. Harris used to invite Sohna over to spend the night at his house in a middle-class neighborhood, where they would eat pizza, and watch television. When Sohna would visit Harris’ house, Sohna left behind a housing project where, even as a child, he said he remembers watching a man die after being shot and beaten…

Shortly after that, he was incarcerated for the first time.

“I had pretty much given up,” Sohna said. “I lived for the moment. I didn’t think about the future.”

Discover how Harris’ school project helped free his friend Sohna.

Sohna’s story is, unfortunately, not unique. Black men receive longer sentences than others. Find out how slavery led to mass incarceration.

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