Roger gets a visit

Three of us visited Roger on a cold damp day - Roger's sister, Helen, his brother James, and me. I'm James's partner.

This was my first visit to a prison. It's not something you ever get used especially when you know they have been wrongly convicted.

We began at a reception room, quite small, noisy, and strangely enough considering the way these place break up families, there were a few toys on display, and high chairs and baby bouncers.

To get the full two hour visit, you need to get booked in approximately an hour before the visiting time, so we were there early, of course. Two prison officers who booked us, pleasant and helpful, gave us a number as if we were at Argos, and like waiting for your purchases there, we have to wait for the number to be called.

Then we went into the prison and through some security checks as if we were taking part in some jail movie.

We were led into a big bright room than didn't look very much like a clink, except for a plentiful number of watchful cameras and uniforms. It seemed strange to see a big children's play area to one side.

I suppose there must have been at least 40 tables tables like breakfast nooks, with four seats attached. Each table had a bright orange as if they might have come from some sea rescue. The day-glow seat was for Roger.

There might have been more than 150 people visiting. The noise made it seem that there were twice as many. As you might expect, it was really hard to hear what Roger was saying, even to hear ourselves.

At times, the tumult was overpowering, in fact so much so that we had to keep leaning forward, straining to keep up with what each said.

I'm glad to say that although he had every reason to be the opposite, he seemed quite up beat. But he is a thoughtful fellow, so he might have been wearing a brave face for our benefit.

We left the room looking forward to seeing Roger again.

At the end, dealing with the crowd and the formalities and getting back to Reception, where all our things were kept, was quite a struggle - but nothing like the difficulties there has been to get our innocent prisoner out.

We walked away with lots mixed feelings, but very happy we had our freedom. Hopefully, it won't be that very much longer before Roger gets his. Correcting the mistake of a misled jury is long overdue. Roger's story is on his website, here. - Lyn Bear