2 articles sent EAHR on June 26, 2014 Table of contents Visiting Ware Fare, by Gerald Marshall – Texas Death Row ........................................................... 1 She Broke my Heart Again, by Gerald Marshall – Texas Death Row.............................................. 3 Visiting Ware Fare, by Gerald Marshall – Texas Death Row Every so often the ranking officials change here at Polunky Unit. There are a numerous officers; regular officers who work with the prisoners every day. Then there are ranking officials. Sergeants, Captains, Majors and Wardens. So many to name all of them. The key players in this are the Wardens. There are different wardens on Polunsky Unit; one head warden, assistant warden and then a Death Row Warden. They change every so often, probably as long as I have been here I’ve seen ten different Wardens. With every new Warden, there are different rules. There was a warden named Hirsh. This warden tried to stop back to back special visits. So you understand what I mean, let me understand. (“Let me explain”, maybe?) Each prisoner gets one special visit a month. So if you come see me on a special visit, you will get a four-hour visit two days in a row. That counts as one visit for a week. To maximize a travel for a special visit, some people from overseas will fly to Texas at the end of one month; the last week get a special visit. Then at the beginning of the next month, they will get the next special visit. Visiting with their friend in total of 16 hours. Warden Hirsh, for no reason aside from being hateful, tried to stop the back to back special visits. He didn’t want Death Row inmates to visit with their friends and loved ones in such a way. But the Officials over his head stopped this because if you stopped people from coming on those two special visits, then you stopped revenue coming into the prison and Livingston for which Texas Death Row is like a “tourist attraction”. He stopped revenue, because if people couldn’t get the two back to back special visits, they would then not stay in Livingston Texas that long and would not spend money that the town needs. They didn’t let him do that. Now there is a new warden here and he is implementing another hateful rule. He is denying special visits, saying that they are overbooked. He’s only allowing a certain amount of special visits a month. He is only doing this to discourage people to come to visit us and of course, he hates us. Here is the reasoning. There are 22 visiting cages in the Death Row visiting room. This new warden has designated eight cages for nothing but legal visits. Which means that there may be times at visit when Page 1|4     2 articles sent EAHR on June 26, 2014 there will be too many people to visit, because there is nowhere to sit, but there will be eight seats empty; they designated “legal visits”. Logically, this is assisine. (?) Here is why, if there are 14 people visiting and there are 8 “legal visits” booths empty, then why would you not allow these peoples loved ones, family and friends to use a legal booth to visit with? It’s an empty booth. It is a new rule to discourage you, people, from coming to see us there. There have been a few prisoners here among us who have been scheduled to get special visits from their loved ones overseas only to be told that they can only get one special visit a certain month, because the next month is booked up. Well, let’s think about this. If you were coming to see me in July the last week, then in August of the first week, the prison would probably give you the first special visit but not the second special visit. To get around this, you need two things: 1) Always call and schedule your special visit ahead of time, early like a month or two months early. Call every day to set up the visits. 2) When you call, try to set up the second special visit first. Let’s say if you were trying to come and see me in September and August. Then you would schedule the second visit in September first. Then set up the first special visit second. By doing this, you have a greater chance of them not seeing you scheduled for the first month and basically denying you only because you have the first special visit set up. Understand what I mean? I hope so. Legally the Warden has the authority to deny visits if it is overcrowded, but he cannot designate certain seats in the visiting room making it overcrowded. I am filing a grievance on this issue tomorrow and I will send it to be posted. I am not sure this will work but if we don’t address it, they will continue to implement any rule they want just to make it harder on Death Row prisoners. Gerald Marshall #999489 Page 2|4
Posted on: Sat, 28 Jun 2014 07:19:05 +0000
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