- Martha Stewart, America's queen of interior design, was
settling last night into her new home, an austere woman's prison nicknamed
"Camp Cupcake".
-
- Stewart, 63, was driven to the federal jail in West
Virginia
at dawn to begin a five-month sentence for lying over a stockmarket
trade.
-
- Prisoner 55170-064, as she will now be known, began her
time behind bars with the early shock of a strip search and an ordeal
described
as a "squat and cough".
-
- Other indignities endured by the businesswomen who
created
a hugely lucrative empire based on her vision of homemaking included her
new uniform, an outfit of matching khaki shirt and trousers with black,
steel toe-capped boots.
-
- She will also be sharing a bunk bed in a small cubicle,
a far cry from her mansions in a New York suburb and the Hamptons.
-
- The multi-millionaire will earn 7p an hour for working
in jail and will also be banned from running or discussing her own business
while a prisoner.
-
- Her five months in prison also mean that the lifestyle
guru will miss Thanksgiving and Christmas with her family and be unable
to vote in the presidential election next month.
-
- Every one of the humiliations was meticulously recorded
by the media but Stewart took a revenge of sorts by denying them pictures
of her arrival at Alderson jail by driving past the waiting cameras at
speed just as dawn was breaking.
-
- Stewart decided to serve her time for conspiracy,
obstruction
of justice and lying to prosecutors over a £29,000 sale of shares
now rather than wait for the outcome of an appeal to steady speculation
about her business's future.
-
- Prisoner 55170-064 has yet to express any remorse for
her crimes.
-
- "Many, many good people . . . have gone to prison
- look at Nelson Mandela," Stewart has said.
-
- © Copyright of Telegraph Group Limited 2004.
-
- http://telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004
- /10/09/wstew09.xml&sSheet=/news/2004/10/09/ixworld.html
|