Disgraced former Chicago Public Schools CEO Barbara Byrd-Bennett has a new moniker — federal inmate No. 48517-424.
The 68-year-old reported Monday to the Alderson Federal Prison Camp, better known as “Camp Cupcake,” the former home of domestic goddess Martha Stewart.
And life at the remote West Virginia minimum security prison is likely to be a major comedown for the onetime $250,000-a-year schools boss. “Performance pay” at Alderson is capped at 40 cents an hour and $5.25 a month, while the four-and-a-half year sentence she is serving for scheming to collect hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes will have begun with medical screening and an initial work assignment in food services or landscaping, according to the prison handbook.
Stewart — who served five months for lying to the FBI about alleged insider trading in 2005 — before emerging to become more successful than ever, described the prison diet as “inedible,” and memorably said that life behind bars of the nation’s first federal prison for women had “none of the fun and spice of a Moroccan buffet.”
She also started a yoga class that Byrd-Bennett may enjoy. Other perks at the prison include a dog training program in which inmates take care of puppies for six to eight weeks, and cosmetology lessons.
The prison’s 83-page handbook, though, sternly warns: “INMATES ARE NOT PERMITTED TO GIVE ONE ANOTHER PEDICURES OR MANICURES EXCEPT IN THE COSMETOLOGY DEPARTMENT!!”
A lengthy list of prison “don’ts” spelled out in the handbook helpfully also warns Byrd-Bennett that “killing” is forbidden, along with “malingering” and failing to keep a cell clean.
Stewart isn’t Alderson’s only famous former inmate: jazz singer Billie Holiday did time there on a drug bust in 1947 (reportedly, she never sang while incarcerated). And Manson family member Lynette “Squeaky” Fromme escaped from the campus-style prison for two days in 1987, while serving time for the attempted murder of President Gerald Ford. More recently, former Chicago Ald. Sandi Jackson served her sentence for public corruption there.
Of the famous inmates, though, Stewart earned the best prison nickname: “M. Diddy.” Something for “Triple B,” or “B3” Byrd-Bennett to aim for, perhaps?
![At a recent wedding reception in Chicago, guests gathered to toast the newlyweds at the bar. Glasses were lined up in front of them, but no alcohol was poured. Instead, marijuana vapor was pumped into the upside-down glasses, which were then lifted and inhaled in unison. “A lot of people were surprised,” bride Aja Heinlein said. “They didn’t even know that was something they could do.” In the new world of cannabis, consumption at private events like weddings, holiday parties and corporate events is becoming more common. The state law that legalized recreational use of marijuana for adults 21 and […]](https://www.chicagotribune.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/ctc-L-Illinois-marijuana-wedding15_187593870.jpg?w=525 "At a recent wedding reception in Chicago, guests gathered to toast the newlyweds at the bar. Glasses were lined up in front of them, but no alcohol was poured. Instead, marijuana vapor was pumped into the upside-down glasses, which were then lifted and inhaled in unison. “A lot of people were surprised,” bride Aja Heinlein said. “They didn’t even know that was something they could do.” In the new world of cannabis, consumption at private events like weddings, holiday parties and corporate events is becoming more common. The state law that legalized recreational use of marijuana for adults 21 and […]")
