Where Martha Stewart and I Went to Prison Was No ‘Camp Cupcake’
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CAMP CUPCAKE: Take A Tour Of America’s Cushiest Prison
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An ex-Michigan Supreme Court justice who pleaded guilty to mortgage fraud is likely heading to federal prison camp in West Virginia.
But Diane Hathaway could have it a lot worse. A judge has recommended she be sent to “FCP Alderson” in the foothills of West Virginia’s Allegheny mountains.
The minimum-security facility is known as “Camp Cupcake.”
Martha Stewart went there. So did an ex-beauty queen who was busted for insider trading and a famous American Jazz singer.
Aerial view
The 159-acre minimum-security prison camp is nestled in the scenic hills near Greenbrier State Forest, on the bank of Greenbrier River. The small town of Alderson, W. Va. is located east across the river.
Main entrance to FPC Alderson
Built in 1928, the prison is actually the first federal prison for women. It uses a reformatory model where women are housed in “cottages” and there’s no barbed wire. The had one famous escapee who took advantage of the low security there.
Lynette Fromme
Lynette “Squeaky” Fromme was sentenced to life in prison after her attempt to assassinate President Gerald Ford in 1975. She escaped Alderson in 1987 but was recaptured two days later and was ultimately released in 2009.
Class taught in the 1930s
During her time at Alderson, Fromme had access to a wide range of educational courses from G.E.D. classes to college classes to vocational training. The prison also has a number of recreational classes: yoga (which Martha Stewart reportedly started), fitness, aerobics, cosmetology, and stress relief.
Martha Stewart
Martha Stewart was sentenced to five months in prison after she was found guilty of insider trading. She told the Washington Post that her “daily interactions with the staff and fellow inmates here at Alderson are marked by fair treatment and mutual respect.” Fans sent her more than 15,000 e-mails in her first month there.
Martha’s arrival caused quite a stir.
The press lined up by the tree-lined gates of FCP Alderson after Martha was sent there in 2004. The trees make it look like she was headed to summer camp or college instead of prison.
A typical prison cell also looks like summer camp
All inmates have access to e-mail (at 5 cents per minute), a common area, television room, and a library. There is also an electronic law library, a hospital, a chapel, and an education building.
Women start out in buildings that can house as many as 125 women, and they’re moved to “cottages” with 60 women if they behave well. They share a room with one other inmate.
FPC Alderson’s main administration building
When she wasn’t getting fan mail, Stewart did maintenance including scrubbing floors and cleaning offices.
All inmates must hold jobs at the prison, unless they have a medical condition that prohibits them from working. Most inmates get holidays off.
In addition, apprenticeship programs are offered for teacher assistants, cooks, and electricians, among other professions.
Inmates walking on the grounds within the complex
And when they’re not working, they can wander the grounds.
Inmates are allowed to exit the buildings after the morning count, but must sign out and specify where they are going. They have to return to their dorms by 4:00 p.m.
Sewing course in the 1930s and 1940s at Alderson
In the 1930s and 1940s, sewing was part of the vocational training program.
During that era, the prison had perhaps its most famous inmate .
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Where Martha Stewart and I Went to Prison Was No ‘Camp Cupcake’
I was a 60-year-old woman when I was first incarcerated in 2010 at Alderson Federal Prison Camp (FPC), one of the few federal women’s prison camps in the United States. A month before I entered prison, my friend Russ Rothman called to tell me Martha Stewart had served her time there when she was 63. He had googled Alderson, nicknamed “Camp Cupcake,” and had found they had tennis courts and an outdoor swimming pool—more like a country club than a prison, he said. Russ assured me I would be okay…and instructed me to bring my racket.
My mother had Martha Stewart on her mind too. Not realizing that Martha had actually gone to trial and lost, she said, “Martha Stewart pled guilty and went to prison for six months. Why don’t you plead guilty, go to prison, and get this nightmare over with. You can’t beat city hall.” My mother also used my love of watching 24/7 TV news in her efforts to persuade me. She said, “At least you will get cable TV in prison. I didn’t get that in Auschwitz.” I had no words.
Ultimately, my mother was right: I couldn’t beat the government’s charges of tax evasion and mail fraud, even though I was innocent. And so, eight years after Martha went to prison, my case went to trial and I was convicted. But from the moment I entered Alderson, I realized it was no country club. After being fingerprinted and having my mug shot taken, I was given “newbie” clothes, that is, the clothes inmates wear for the first day only. The slip-on sneakers were two sizes too large; the bra had as little material as a G-string and didn’t hold my breasts in place. The oversized outfit could have fit two women.
After this initial intake, I waited with three other new arrivals in a freezing cell in the Receiving and Discharge (R and D) building. We got the prison bag lunch of a bologna sandwich, cookies, an apple, and a water. When we missed dinner, we got another bag of bologna sandwiches.
Soon after our arrival, R and D officers gave each of us a large laundry bag which contained a blanket, two sheets, soap, shampoo, a comb, a toothbrush, and, most importantly, “Maximum Security” deodorant.
The R and D building was separated from the sleeping quarters (the “units”) by a long stretch known as “Hallelujah Hill.” For some, this nickname was a reference to its proximity to the prison chapel, but for the older crowd, making it to the top merited a shout of “Hallelujah.” During my first trek to the Admissions and Orientation (A and O) units, I was forced to stop several times to catch my breath while carrying the heavy laundry bag. I lagged far behind the younger women.
During my first two weeks in prison, I went through orientation with thirty other women. Correctional officers showed us a film on the Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA) and emphasized there was to be no lesbian sex. I understood that to mean lesbian sex was the only kind of sex that merited punishment, as opposed to some of the contractors’ well-known proclivity for sexually abusing prisoners. They also lectured us on the rules of the compound, the different facilities, and told us we had to work.
In Alderson, everyone was required to work in the kitchen for their first 90 days. That is, everyone but Martha Stewart, who requested but was denied kitchen duty. I suspect she was refused because this chore might have given her an inkling of pleasure within the miserable prison environment. She was instead assigned instead to the humiliating task of mopping the floors and cleaning the toilets of the warden and other higher-ups.
My first job at the Alderson kitchen was cleaning floors after the lunch and dinner shift. Although I worked seven or eight hours a day, I earned only $5.25 during my first month. There were also few accommodations based on age—elderly women were given the exact same jobs as younger women; even older women who could barely walk had to endure the long work hours. And after our work was done, we were not permitted to go back to the unit between lunch and dinner. We were not allowed to read, do crossword puzzles, knit, play cards, or sleep. Instead, everyone had to spend long hours in plastic seats attached to the table. As an older woman, this took a real toll on me physically.
Any basis for incarceration is outweighed by the negative consequences older adults experience behind bars.
After my days of kitchen duty were up, I got transferred to the landscaping department, which meant that, at the age of 60, I was charged with the backbreaking work of mowing the lawns in the hot summer and shoveling snow in the winter. Once, I was assigned a heavy 1950s-style lawnmower but could not get it started without assistance. When I went to push it, I couldn’t even move it an inch.
After I went to landscaper and asked for a different assignment, he gave me a broom and instructed me to sweep the streets. I cleaned the road of rocks but quickly realized that the area would be filled again as soon as a truck came by. And so, I asked the officer if I could remove the stones and put them far from the road. He replied, “But then you would have nothing to do.”
At an age where working a physically demanding job for seven- and eight-hour days was grueling, I served as the Sisyphus of Alderson, sweeping rocks off the streets only to see my work undone by passing vehicles. My experience is far from unique. While there are 75,000 prisoners over the age of 60 that are under the jurisdiction of correctional authorities, accommodations that take into account the reality of aging behind bars are all too rare.
What I’ve come to realize is that although older people do commit crimes that warrant punishment, there are few reasons, public safety or otherwise, to incarcerate elders. Certainly, any basis for incarceration is outweighed by the negative consequences we experience behind bars. Instead, we need alternatives to incarceration that acknowledge that older people are too vulnerable a population to be held in our prisons and jails.
As for Martha Stewart, well, Martha was lucky. She went home to a billion dollar company. But as for me, I’m homeless, broke, and living proof that Alderson is no “Camp Cupcake.”
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