Music for Prisoners: A Benefit for Marie Mason, with David Rovics and Savage Instinct

Music for Prisoners: A Benefit for Marie Mason, with David Rovics and Savage Instinct Monday, November 12 at 8:00pm 4200 Cedar Avenue S., Minneapolis, MN $5-20 suggested donation (no one turned away for lack of funds) This benefit will support…

David Rovics Visits Marie Mason in Texas

The following is an account of David Rocic’s trip to Texas, which included a visit to Marie Mason in Carswell.  It is a very moving account and gives a good picture as to what Marie is going through right now.

FRIDAY, JUNE 15, 2012

A Weekend in Texas


The next morning I discovered that there is no good coffee at the Austin airport, none. But I’m sure I slept better on the plane to Dallas that way, anyhow. In Dallas I got some coffee, rented a car and pointed the GPS towards the Carswell Federal Medical Center in Fort Worth, where my friend Marie Mason is serving a 22-1/2 year prison sentence. The prison is next to a military base, but my GPS said it was on the base, so I went to the base’s entrance. The teenager in camouflage on guard politely directed me to the main entrance of the military base when I explained I was trying to visit the prison. Miles away at the main entrance a woman gave me a piece of paper with directions to the entrance to the prison. Apparently this happens often. The directions are old, and some of the landmarks in them don’t exist anymore, such as a CVS pharmacy that has closed since someone printed them out. After getting thoroughly lost, I finally find the entrance to the prison, save the coordinates, and the guard tells me I’m ten minutes too late for visiting hours, they’re over for the day. It’s Saturday, and visiting days are Saturday and Sunday. He tells me which hours I can come back the next morning.