- NEW YORK (CNN/Money) -- With
one week down and many more to go, Martha Stewart wrote an open letter
to fans from prison that was posted Friday on her personal Web site.
-
- In the five-paragraph missive, Stewart described life
at the federal prison for women as "pretty much what I
anticipated."
She said she was doing fine and that everyone she has met, from prison
officials to fellow inmates, was "nice."
-
- "I have adjusted and am very busy," wrote
Stewart
in a posting on www.marthatalks.com. "The camp is like an
old-fashioned
college campus -- without the freedom, of course."
-
- But Stewart also beseeched supporters, who she said have
sent hundreds of letters in the past week, to stop including gifts and
money. Instead, she asked gift-givers to make donations to their favorite
charities or organizations.
-
- "Please know that while these gestures of friendship
and support are deeply appreciated, any such items must be returned to
the sender by prison officials," she wrote.
-
- In March 2004, when last estimated by Forbes, Stewart's
net worth was around $335 million.
-
- Prison officials open all incoming mail.
-
- Federal prison rules generally allow outsiders to send
unlimited letters, money orders, magazines and other periodicals, according
to David Novak, who spent time in jail for fraud before becoming a prison
consultant. Inmates are barred from getting flowers, food, personal items,
"sexually explicit photographs," or Polaroid pictures.
-
- In a book about life behind bars, Novak said the hardest
time for inmates is during the Thanksgiving-to-New-Year's-Day holiday
period,
when no exceptions are made to the gift ban. Prisoners can receive visitors
on those days and they can send flowers, however.
-
- Stewart, like all federal prisoners, is allowed to spend
a maximum of $290 a month at the prison commissary. It's basically a
mini-mart
that sells snacks, stamps, and some toiletries.
-
- All inmate money is kept in separate "commissary
accounts," according to Novak. Stewart will be allowed to take any
leftover funds with her when she is released in March.
-
- Stewart, 63, began serving Oct. 8 a five-month prison
sentence at a minimum security camp for women located in Alderson, West
Virginia. Stewart, along with her former stock broker, was convicted
earlier
this year of lying to government investigators during an insider trading
probe into some of her personal stock sales.
-
- Although Stewart was allowed to stay out of jail while
appealing her conviction, she chose to serve her time now rather than wait
the year or two it would take for an appeals court to rule on her
case.
-
- Stewart is still pursuing an appeal.
-
- Friday's message was not the only word on Stewart in
the past week. Agents for Stewart were reportedly shopping a book deal
on her time behind bars, which industry watchers said could fetch $5
million.
-
- Stewart promised followers that more Web site postings
would follow, though she did not specify what their frequency would
be.
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- © 2004 Cable News Network LP, LLLP. A Time Warner
Company ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
-
- http://money.cnn.com/2004/10/15/news/
- midcaps/martha_openletter/index.htm?cnn=yes
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