The latest accounts of visits with Roger, as well as detailed instructions on how to arrange to visit him
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Although numerous people have expressed the desire to visit Roger, it is not practical to assume that such a visit can be arranged.
Roger can only receive visits from those who are on his approved visitors list. The list is limited to ten people and can only be changed once in every 6 months.
Roger has two alternatives for those who are already on his visitors list.
1) He is allowed to receive one two-hour visit a week from someone on the list.
2) If somone on the list lives more than 4 hours drive from the prison they can apply to the Warden's office for a "special visit". These special visits can happen only once a month. If approved then the visitor can visit for 4 hours, on two successive days (8 hours total).
A regular 2-hour visit can not happen in the week of a special visit. The prison has a limit on the number of special visits per day for the entire death row population so it is advisable to apply some weeks in advance to ensure approval.
For the record Roger was on Death Row for 5 years before he got his first visit, it was another 2 years before he got another visit.
About a year or so later he started to get more regular visits, starting at about one per year from the late 1990's. He is currently getting at least one visit a month.
Other general information.
Photo id such as Passport or US State Driver Licence are needed to enter the prison. No paper money is allowed, only coins to a maximum value of $20. This can be used to purchase goods from a vending machine in the visiting area.
A guard will pass the package through a secure hatch to another guard on the condemned man's side. This guard will then place the goods in the small "cage" in which the condemned man is locked for the duration of the visit.
This "cage" is about 6 feet high, 3 feet wide by 3 feet deep. It has a door on the back and metal walls and roof. The front side has plate glass. At the start of the visit the handcuffed condemned man is escorted by 2-3 guards into the "cage".
The door at the back is locked and then the condemned man pushes his hands through a small hatch at the back. The guards then remove the handcuffs, the prisoner sits down on a chair and the visit can start.
The visit is non-contact. Conversation is by phones on both sides of the plate glass.
Neat dress is required. You're car will be searched before and after the visit.
Additional information for those planning a visit to any Death Row inmate.
The closest airport is the George W. Bush international airport in Houston, Texas. It is about 75 minutes drive from the prison.
To go from Houston to Livingston,there are three possibilites:
• Rent a cab (about $100-110). If you take a cab, be sure to tell the driver to take Highway 59 North.
• Take the Greyhound bus. Rather inconvenient, although cheaper, because you have to first go into town ($45 by cab) and there are not many trips per day.
• Rent your own car. The best solution, because that will avoid taking cabs in Livingston to go to the prison and back. Car rental is quite cheap but with taxes and gas you should budget about $100 a day.
LODGING: there are hotels in Livingston, but quite far (10 miles) from the prison.
Holiday Inn 936-327-9600
http://www.livingston-hotel.com
Super-8 hotel 936-327-2451(much cheaper and just next to a Walmart supermarket open 24 hours, 7 days a week, which the taxi driver can locate easily).
http://www.super8.com/Super8/control/Booking/property_info?propertyId=14...
Econolodge 936-327-2300
http://www.lodgingus.com/TX/Livingston/econolodge
Hampton Inn 936-327-2300, the newest hotel.
http://www.hotel-livingston.com/
Disclaimer: No information published on this web site implicates Mr. Roger McGowen's legal rights, as defined in the United States Constitution's 5th and 6th Amendments. Mr. McGowen has no access to this site, nor can he exercise any control over its content. This web site and all the information contained herein are supported by friends of Roger McGowen, and all the opinions, information, and content presented herein are solely theirs. All information presented on this web site has been obtained from the public domain.
Visit by Pierre Pradervand, 29-30 0ctober 2007
Visit to Roger by Pierre Pradervand, 29-30 0ctober 2007
As all death row inmate websites are regularly scanned by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, we have a new policy of great conservatism concerning all the information shared on this site, to be certain that no information posted here could ever be used against Roger
Roger was in great shape, and we had many good laughs.
For the first time since he was imprisoned 20 years ago, Roger has started receiving visits from members of his family. One of his sisters and a brother-in-law visit him regularly. This has made a huge difference for Roger, and is evidently having a very positive impact on his morale. They picked me up at he airport and drove me up to Livingston, and are willing to do this for any person visiting Roger. (Please contact me at : info@vivreautrement.ch for additional information).
Controls at the prison were especially rigorous as portable telephones have been found in recent months in the cells of death row inmates! Just like the drugs that circulate on death row, these phones came in via guards. It must be explained that Texas prison guards are among the worst paid in the States, receive very little training, and due to the constant serious understaffing of prisons, are under pressure to do overtime, often unpaid! So some take the easier way and accept to render little “services” to inmates, against payment of course.
Roger expressed real satisfaction about how his case has finally started moving. Thanks to the diligent work of his present private lawyer, key people in the case have been identified and interviewed for the first time ever (which should have been done 22 years ago!).
He continues to receive a large amount of letters - and he replies to as many as he can, depending on the availability of stamps. It is important to stress that Rogers’ life on death row can be divided into “before” and ”after” the appearance of the book, because not only is Roger almost daily aware of the impact he has on people’s lives, but the donations from readers of the French book also enabled us to hire a lawyer.
Roger also has an almost full visiting schedule of “special visits” (people from farther than 300 miles). Inmates can have 10 names on their visitors list, which is drawn up every six months). Most special visitors are from the international solidarity group, but not exclusively.
Visit by Marion von Gienanth, February 2007
REPORT OF MY VISIT TO ROGER
Alan Polunsky Unit, Livingston, February 2007
Today I'm coming from the death row. I have never met such a free person in my life except some of my teachers. He is sitting in front of you in a cage and you can feel that the prison around him and the hand coffins are no border for him at all. He is bigger than all of that. He showed me the man who is in charge of the inmates who hates the inmates and wants them to suffer more than they already do in the worst death row in the US. Roger spoke of him without any hatred, sending love into his heart to help him overcome the hatred.
I asked Roger about happiness. He said : Happiness is a state of mind. I learned it through the prison, especially since I came to Polunsky Unit. I had a problem with control. They control the air and let us sometimes suffocate. They control the water I couldn't take a shower when I wanted and the water was so hot that we burned. They put on hand cuffs after 16 years without. They feed us with food with worms; they take us out of the cell when they want, even in the middle of the night. They do with us what they want and when they want. So after some time I stopped speaking und was angry and didn’t take a shower and send the food back and people were saying, ‘we don’t know you like that in a bad mood’. Then I decided just not to be affected and to be happy. Every morning I get up and say ‘I’m healthy I’m happy’”. Also in September when he was send to Level 2 he was very calm. He just didn’t enter the filthy cell anymore and said that he will rather go to Level 2 or get some cleaning materials to be able to clean the cell. They said they have no such material and brought him to level 2. He only felt bad for his visitors afterwards as they got a problem to see him.
He says that sometimes he goes for 3-4 hours for 5 steps and back 4 steps in the cell and walks away that way. Others do the same, but they feel unhappy or even turn mad. (the same steps and what difference…)
Execution of “Big Jack”
Here what touched me the most: Tuesday Roger showed me an inmate whom they called "Big Jack" 6 feet 9 tall. While he passed I could see this man who looked kind and warm hearted. Roger liked him a lot. Yesterday he was there again and Roger told me that he would be executed in the afternoon. Again he passed on his way to the toilet with three wardens and Roger put his hand against the bars of the cage and Big Jack turned around so that his fingers in his hand cuffs could touch and the two fingers of the two men met. Big Jack had a shine and even a laugh on his face and Roger said: "he seems to be ok." I said: "he feels that you support him". Roger nodded. I asked him if he is not allowed to see him. "No, in the other prison before the execution they could put some people on the list whom they wanted to say good bye to, but here not."
I could see the family of Big Jack visit him at his cage and talk with him through a thick glass with a telephone (like me with Roger) and he had his last food. Then we all had to leave. Men with iron vests were waiting for him already. Roger said that an execution is an event for which quite a few people come, and he watched them out of the slit of his window ( they have only a slit!) slap each other on the shoulders because they like it and find it exciting. This year there have been nine already. There start to be so many that the newspapers don’t write about them anymore.
My meeting with Tony Haughton
Tony happened to be in Livingston because of another case. He picked me up for lunch. We drove to the Livingston Lake and found a little restaurant. The screens for the flies which were not there this time of the year were still hanging and dirty; so you only could see the reflections of the sun in the water. But when I went out to see it I found it brown of dirt. Nowhere have I seen a place where somebody would walk. (The lady at the desk of Motel Super 8 told somebody that there is a nice park some miles away were “you can walk and there are nice trees” …Livingston is a village in the countryside!).
Since 2005 there is a new law “Life without Parole”. It means that the person will stay in prison his whole life. The Life Sentence meant up to twenty years. The Court can decide if they put somebody with the same Capital Crime whom up to 2005 they had put in the Death row now in this “Life without Parole”. But this is only for the cases since 2005 and not for those who were already in the death row.
At the Air Port an Italian lady “Alexandra” recognized me from the visitor’s room. She is married to a Mexican in the Death Row, whom she met through an organization helping inmates to find contacts. She fell in love with him 4 years ago; quit her job as a teacher to become a cleaning woman to be free to go as often as she can afford to see him. She had stayed in a guest house behind the prison from were she could walk. She paid 15 $ a night with free use of the kitchen. She says the lady owner there is very kind and it is a good place. She will send us the address.
Marion