Martha Stewart - A "Model" Prisoner

The myopic media has performed exactly the kind of circus acts one would expect upon Martha Stewart's release from prison: Follow her around and take a lot of photographs. Ask this billionaire how prison treater her. Ask her what she's going to do next.

Long forgotten is the actual reason Stewart went to prison--profiting by abusing access to privileged information that is not available to the masses of impoverished and "middle class" Americans who routinely lose their hard-earned money to inside traders in the stock market, salesmen of pointless products, etc. (To be precise, Stewart was convicted of lying to investigators, not of insider trading).

The most tragic part of this circus is not the media's fascination with Martha Stewart's imprisonment, however. It is their portrayal of Stewart as some kind of heroine, who did her time with dignity, dutifully paid her debt to society, and patiently awaiting her opportunity to become America's favorite (and presumably, honest) entrepreneur once again. A role model to us all, indeed.

One Los Angeles Times headline articulated this heroic theme in six words: "MARTHA STEWART: HUMILITY DONE TO PERFECTION", and offered empathy for Ms. Stewart's sad plight:

Naturally, it took a lot of hard work — scrubbing prison bathroom floors, foraging for wild onions on prison grounds, learning to cook with a microwave, befriending women whose lives bore no resemblance to her own, even losing a Christmas decorating contest. But Stewart is more sympathetic, perhaps more human, than she's ever been. After 23 years as the world's most capable hostess, a fantasy so many Americans loved to hate, she seems to have acquired the one useful trait the public felt she lacked: humility.

With domesticated reporting like this on every channel, the news media lost its best opportunity in years to inform The People of one of America's worst ongoing atrocities: the prison industry. No mention of prisoners being beaten or raped. No mention of them being put to work as cheap labor for corporations. No mention of wrongful or political imprisonment. No mention of solitary confinement doing what it does best--driving human beings to the limits of their sanity and making them even more dangerous, rather than rehabilitating them into contributing members of society.

Those who are interested in the reality of prison life for non-billionaires might want to visit the Prisoner Activist Resource Center (http://www.prisonactivist.org/), since the mass media never bothered to mention any of these subjects. All we got from the maintream news media was a Christmas decorating contest. Stewart herself had more to say on the subject than all mainstream news media combined in a post made to her website while incarcerated, which vaguely urging the government to consider prison "reform".

I would like to take this opportunity to describe a true American heroine, in constrast to the media's portrayal of Martha Stewart as a role model.

Susan MacDougal was a partner of Bill and Hillary Clinton in the now famous Whitewater land deal. She was never convicted of committing any financial crime (like Martha was), but instead was incarcerated for refusing to testify against the Clintons. According to MacDougal, she only refused to lie about the Clintons when special prosecutor Ken Starr demanded that she did under penalty of imprisonment. As so often happens in these cases, we may never know exactly what led to MacDougal's incarceration among hardened criminals in a federal penitentiary. Fortunately, what happened with Whitewater is entirely irrelevant to this discussion.

What is relevant is Susan MacDougal's actions upon her release from prison. She wrote a book about her experience and began touring as an advocate for prison reform. You see, some people actually care enough about other people to empathize with them, learn about the reality of their experience, and take positive action to stop human suffering where they see it. Susan MacDougal opened her eyes while in prison, saw something horrific happening in the land of the free, and decided to devote her time to doing something about it.

In contrast, Martha Stewart immediately began planning to host another television show this Fall. In the meantime, she held an internet chat interview with her fans, where she applied her experience in the brutal American prison system to answer hard-hitting questions like these:

Kathyrn_NYC: Can you tell us about the poncho you wore when you flew home Thursday night?

Susie315: Why are you at a new house? What about Turkey Hill? Who's there or did you sell it?

PM1113: Can you please tell me where the daily show will be taped and how I can be a member of the live audience?

Denise: How did your pets react when you returned home?

Polski: Martha, what did you prepare as your first meal when you returned home?

Sueannf: Do you have your ankle bracelet? What does it look like? Is there any time of the day that you can take it off? Is it uncomfortable?

Carmel: Hello, Martha. My 10-year-old daughter is a fan of yours as well. She would like to know what your middle name is. Hers is Rose. Thanks, Martha!

Marcus: Martha, what is your favorite movie, and have you watched it since you got home?

On the bright side, there were a few questions about Martha's experience at Alderson Prison:

ilovetea: I have heard that you were foraging for wild greens on the Alderson grounds. I am very interested in what to look for when foraging, and where I might find out more information on this topic.

Yes, Martha Stewart was a "model" prisoner alright. By ignoring the enormous human suffering that exists behind so many prison walls in this country, she is setting the standard for American apathy and mediocrity. A truly cynical person might even expect that the government she has failed to redress despite this grand opportunity might one return the favor.... As for me, I can only hope Martha Stewart will finally do something meaningful with her entrepreneurial talent and use it toward reforming our prison system. A good citizen like that deserves to be a billionaire.

Unfortunately, that doesn't seem likely. Ms. Stewart already assured us that good citizenship is the furthest thing from her mind, in the same internet chat:

weezy: Will you do a memoir of your time at Alderson?

Martha: I don’t plan to write a memoir of Alderson per se, but when I do write my autobiography it will surely contain a section relating to the last five months.

It is up to the American People to pick up Stewart's slack by supporting Susan MacDougal's efforts, and sending donations to prison reform advocacy groups instead whenever the urge to buy an overpriced monogrammed towel set strikes them.