Martha Stewart's former inmates received some pretty special treatment during the businesswoman's time in prison in 2004, and they're sharing some details in the new CNN docuseries, The Many Lives of Martha Stewart.
Apparently, the famous cook used to smuggle food out of the prison's kitchen in order to bake sweet deserts for them. Martha served a five-month sentence in 2004 for fraud after being convicted of felony charges related to the ImClone stock trading case. She was released in March 2005.
Martha was incarcerated at the Alderson Federal Prison Camp in West Virginia, and some of the women who were locked up with her at the time are sharing what it was like. “How we communicated was by note, a handwritten note and someone from that cottage or dorm, you had to wait for someone to take that in for you,” Meg Phipps, one of the former inmates said.
She went on to explain that she once received a note from the TV personality suggesting that they meet. “She also sent that note with a baked apple, which meant she had already tackled the idea of cooking in your dorm or cottage by using the microwave and what resources that you could find — because the baked apple had caramel on it and probably some cinnamon,” Meg said.
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According to the former inmate, sneaking food wasn't allowed. “I suspect some of this may have come from the cafeteria, which we’re not supposed to do." But another former inmate, Susan Spry, says everyone did it.
“Everyone smuggles food out of kitchens," she said. "I mean what else are you going to make? Unless it’s smuggled food." She added that she used to smuggle food under her arms at a point in time.
Susan, who described herself as Martha's "prison friend," also opened up about the other kind of things the cook did during her time in prison. "She kept it clean," the woman said, referencing to the administration building where Martha worked during her sentence. "She cleaned toilets. She cleaned the warden’s toilet.”
Elizabeth Walker, a former supervisory chaplain at the prison, said Martha swept floors and emptied trash as well. “She was very good. She did her job."
Everyone enjoyed their time with Martha in prison, so much so that the day she was released, they threw a potluck for her. “We brought different dishes, but Martha did bring a caramel flan, and I don’t know how she made it,” Meg said. “It’s a big part about what made prison tolerable is that fellowship of cooking and celebrating someone going home. She thanked people for making her time there go as well as it did.”
Susan says that the cook also noted about wanting to reconnect at some point in life. “She said ‘I don’t think I had enough time with you girls’ and she said to me, ‘I will see you again,’" the former inmate said. "So I’m still waiting, but I know I’ll see her again."
