Martha Stewart Assigned to W.Va. Prison

There are no gates or fences, and most days anyone can drive straight to the warden's home at the Federal Correctional Institute here. But after Martha Stewart announced that this is where she will serve her time for lying to federal investigators, a corrections officer was stationed at the entrance to turn back reporters and the just plain curious.

The famous and the felonious are nothing new to the town of Alderson. The prison's past inhabitants include two women who tried to kill President Ford - Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme and Sara Jane Moore - and jazz singer Billie Holiday, sentenced on a drug charge.

"When Squeaky Fromme ran away, the reporters just swamped the town," resident Karen Lobban said. "At the same time, Harry Belafonte was walking down the other side of the street, and no one even noticed him."

"Martha Stewart will love it here, and we hope she will want to come back after she's released," Lobban said. "This is a beautiful community."

Stewart, 63, said in a statement Wednesday that she had hoped to be imprisoned closer to her family, but was pleased that the government had assigned her "so quickly" to "the first federal prison camp for women in the United States."

"I look forward to getting this behind me and to vigorously pursuing my appeal," said Stewart, who must report to Alderson by Oct. 8.

A source familiar with the government's decision, speaking on condition of anonymity, told The Associated Press that the Bureau of Prisons selected Alderson because it was more remote and less accessible to the media than Stewart's first choice, Danbury, Conn., or her second choice of Coleman, Fla.

Those prisons are also more overcrowded, the source said. The Coleman prison, for example, is packed with inmates moved from other Florida prisons because of the recent hurricanes.

Stewart's new prison home is tucked into a town of about 1,000 residents that relies on inmates to clean up the river banks, mow grass and pick up trash. The inmate-staffed fire department assists the town's volunteer department when needed.

"They're a good neighbor to have," said Neta Roush, president of a civic improvement group known as Alderson Main Street. "They're really a big help to our town, and we're glad to have them."

Betty Alderson, who once worked as a secretary at Alderson and now runs a department store begun by the family of the town's founder, said the prison "looks a lot like a college. It's a beautiful campus."

She recalls the days when the wife of gangster "Machine Gun" Kelly was incarcerated at the prison.

"She used to collect walnuts, pull off the husks and use them to dye her hair," she said. "None of them have ever caused the town any trouble."

Other Alderson residents were scarcely aware of the latest celebrity sent to do her time in West Virginia.

"We have more serious things to worry about, like floods and hurricanes," said Joanne Jones, a clerk at the local IGA food store.

Stewart and former stockbroker Peter Bacanovic were convicted of lying to federal investigators about why Stewart sold 3,928 shares of ImClone Systems Inc. stock in December 2001.

They received the same sentence - five months in prison, plus five months of house arrest. Bacanovic was also allowed to remain free while he appeals. He has announced no plans to enter prison.
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Why did they have to send her in my state? The prison she will be in is only like 45 minutes from my house. He..He... looks like she will have to put up with some Ol' Hillbillies!

aka Camp Cupcake

really, that's what the locals call it. :rolleyes:

Quote:

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Originally posted by Tina


"Martha Stewart will love it here, and we hope she will want to come back after she's released," Lobban said. "This is a beautiful community."

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Poor baby. How will she ever survive prison? :rolleyes: :mad:

Sounds more like a country club to me, except for the fact of them picking up litter and such. How ridiculous. Yeah, I'm sure she's really sorry about her crimes now.

It must be nice to be rich enough to choose where and when you'll serve your sentence.

Little Ms Cupcake requested she serve her sentence in a minimum security prison in Stamford, CT so her dear mother, whom I'm SURE she would sell if if the price were right, can visit.

If it was any other average convict Josephine, she'd be serving her sentence in good old Niantic Women's Prison with all the other average Josephine criminals.

What REALLY gets my a$$ is the smug look on that scumbag's face, like she's gotten away with something.

I wonder when her line of "cellblock designer sheets, window treatments (notice rich people call them window treatments, and poor people like me call them curtains) and accessories" will be hitting the market. Look out K-Mart!!!

I believe there are a lot worse "scumbags" (Donna's word, not mine), than Martha Stewart. She is serving the prison term that she was given in the type of prison she was ordered to. I don't really see her as a threat to society, do you?

I don't know if her being a threat is really the issue. If it were you or I who lied and was sentenced to prison, I really doubt we'd be sent to a place like that. ;) Her money and celebrity status got her there.

Her being a threat wasn't an issue. It's the fact that she gets to serve her time in a country club "prison"

I agree, although prisions for fedral crimes I hear are a lot "nicer" than state pens and even local jails.

She should be real glad she didnt get convicted on a state level.

I think it is total bullsh!@ that you can submit your top choices for prison. Her butt should have went to the same prison that everyone else goes too. That irks the heck out of me.

Logan,

I called her a scumbag because I loathe her. She's smug and thinks she is above everyone on the face of the earth. She'd sell her own mother if the price were right.

I know that she's not a real threat to anyone (except maybe Emeril), but let's hope this place she'll be incarcerated in will teach her a bit of a lesson and knock her down a few pegs where she belongs. Money DOES talk.