Martha Stewart was “dragged into solitary” during her infamous prison stint.
When Martha Stewart went to prison, it did little to change her public image. If anything, it made many people wince at how eager our justice system was to make an example.
The experience did teach her a lot about prison life. It is an unjust, dehumanizing, man-made horror.
Martha Stewart opened up about spending time in solitary confinement, going without food or water for 24 hours.
Martha Stewart spent time in solitary confinement
There are morally better, more sympathetic celebrities than Todd and Julie Chrisley to highlight carceral injustice.
Decades ago, Martha Stewart served a five-month prison sentence at Alderson Federal Prison Camp in West Virginia. The facility, nicknamed Camp Cupcake, was supposedly one of the nicer federal prisons. If that’s true, it is a damning indictment of the entire system.
In Martha Stewart’s Netflix documentary, Martha, the Sports Illustrated swimsuit model opens up about her “terrible” time behind bars — and provides personal letters that she has written during her life.
Stewart writes that, on the first of her 150 days behind bars, she experienced: “Physical exam, stripped of all clothes. Squat, arms out, cough — embarrassing.”
In the documentary, she reflects: “I had to do all that crap that you see in the movies. You can’t even believe that that’s what you’re going through.”
Even media that seemingly advocates for the status quo of our legal system, like Law & Order, has delved into the horrors of prison. Dehumanizing treatment, humiliation, and more plague inmates — whether they are guilty or innocent.
How did Martha Stewart end up in solitary confinement?
“Today I saw two very well-dressed ladies walking and I breezed by them, remarking on the beautiful warm morning and how nice they looked. When I realized from the big silver key chain that they were guards, I lightly brushed the chain,” Martha Stewart writes in one letter.
“Later I was called in to be told never, ever touch a guard without expecting severe reprimand,” she reveals.
Stewart apologized at the time. She writes that “the incident was so minor when it occurred” that she didn’t think of it again. That is, until the guards punished her.
“I was dragged into solitary for touching an officer,” Martha Stewart tells the cameras on the Netflix documentary.
“No food or water for a day,” she described. “This was Camp Cupcake, remember? That was the nickname. Camp Cupcake. It was not a cupcake.”
The Federal Bureau of Prisons has declined to comment on the incident. Naturally, they do insist that, in general, they grant all prisoners the basic necessities of life every day, even though historical evidence — and Martha Stewart’s description of her time in solitary — clearly indicate otherwise.
Now, she’s sharing her ‘worries’ about the quality of life
Martha Stewart, who is a lifestyle expert of world renown, highlights the “unhealthy bed” in some of her writing. She shared that she began her day at 4 in the morning while in prison.
“What worries me is the very poor quality of the food and the unavailablility off fresh anything as there are many starches and many carbs, many fat foods. No pure anything,” she reflected in her writing. “Everything was terrible.”
Martha began streaming on Wednesday, October 30 on Netflix.