From Screen Shot to Cell Block

From Screen Shot to Cell Block

By Rhonda Turpin

In their heart of hearts, every federal prisoner is a celebrity. 

Many fellow inmates have approached me, stating, “Ms. Turpin.  You should write a book about me!  My case was all over the news, and I am known everywhere!”  They brag.

Instead of stating the obvious fact that I have never heard of them, I let them rant and then walk away.

A Reality Show celebrity from the Real Housewives of New Jersey will be premiering at Danbury Camp today, Monday, January 5, 2015:  Teresa something or other.

Danbury Prison will be in the limelight once again.  During the Summer of 2013, Grammy Award-winning Lauryn Hill served a 90-day sentence at Danbury Camp.  Lauryn was an A-lister.  Teresa is not.  I tolerate reality shows, at best, so I did not take the time to learn her last name.  I write celebrity memoirs, which is a lane of my own since I happened to share a living space with two of them during my incarceration.  The other A-lister I wrote about was Martha Stewart.

Theresa is on the bottom end of the C-list and maybe even no higher than the D-List.  Writing about C-listers and other self-proclaimed celebrities does not generate royalty income. 

However, the groupies are riled up and bickering over who will be Teresa’s friend and escort.  My prediction is that once the mild sensationalism fades, the majority of inmates here will return to their normal prison lives, as they did with Lauryn Hill and Martha Stewart. 

There is legislation heading the Sentencing Commission’s priority list that will be voted on on January 9, 2015, at the preliminary level, to create realistic sentences for white-collar, non-violent crimes.  My question is, “Why did Teresa have to come to prison, at the high cost of $32,000 a year, charged to the taxpayers?”  America is a prison country, we all know this, but the country needs to cut it out.

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