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| Stewart going to West Virginia prison |
| By Chicago Tribune |
| Published: 10/04/2004 |
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Martha Stewart said last Wednesday that she will serve her five-month sentence at a minimum-security prison camp in West Virginia. Stewart must report by 2 p.m. Oct. 8 to the federal prison camp at Alderson. She was convicted in March of obstructing justice for lying to authorities about a stock trade. She had asked for assignment to a prison in Danbury, Conn., near her home and her 90-year-old mother, or in Coleman, Fla. "While I had hoped to be designated to a facility closer to my family and more accessible to my appellate attorneys, I am pleased that the Bureau of Prisons has designated me so quickly to FPC Alderson, the first federal prison camp for women in the United States," Stewart said in a statement. "I look forward to getting this behind me and to vigorously pursuing my appeal." In a letter to the judge at her trial seeking a recommendation for assignment to a prison in Connecticut or Florida, Stewart's lawyer noted that Alderson is not as accessible as the other two facilities. "It is served by no local airports and has limited accessibility by rail," attorney Walter Dellinger said in his letter to U.S. District Judge Miriam Cedarbaum. A source close to the case said Alderson as chosen largely because of its remote location. There was concern that the Connecticut and Florida prisons were too accessible to the media and also had more serious overcrowding issues, the source said. The Coleman prison, for example, is crowded with inmates moved from other Florida prisons because of the recent hurricanes. Dan Dunne, a spokesman for the Bureau of Prisons, declined to comment on the decision. The West Virginia prison, nicknamed Camp Cupcake, opened in 1927. It is about 270 miles southwest of Washington in the foothills of the Allegheny Mountains, and it is known for its open environment. Its best-known inmates include Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme, a member of the Manson family who tried to shoot President Gerald Ford, and Sara Jane Moore, who also tried to kill Ford. The 1,055 female inmates at Alderson sleep in two-person, dormitory-style rooms, said Bureau of Prisons spokeswoman Traci Billingsley. Most are serving time for drug-related offenses, and all are required to work. Inmates earn 12 to 40 cents an hour. The primary jobs are grounds maintenance, sanitation and food services. Stewart will serve five months in home confinement after she's released in March and will be allowed to work for 48 hours each week. She was convicted with her former Merrill Lynch & Co. broker, Peter Bacanovic, of deceiving federal investigators looking into her December 2001 sale of shares in ImClone Systems Inc. |
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