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March 11, 2011 http://detnews.com/article/20110311/METRO01/103110365

Paper Chase: No seconds for Conyers at CampCupcakeEx-Detroit city official prays for Kilpatrick, dislikes the prison food

THE DETROIT NEWS

The Detroit News

The paper

Some call it Camp Cupcake, but Alderson Federal Prison is no cakewalk, ex-Detroit City CouncilwomanMonica Conyers says.

The incarcerated wife of U.S. Rep. John Conyers wrote a three-page letter to The Detroit News saying she'skeeping her spirits up, prays for the family of former Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, loves Detroit and hates prisonchow.

"It's over-crowded and they barely have food to feed the people," Conyers wrote in the Jan. 12 letter. "Theportions are smaller and no seconds when it's something good. Most of the women are here for drugs!"

The chase

Conyers is now known as federal inmate No. 43693-039 after pleading guilty to accepting $6,000 in bribes forswitching her vote on a $1.2 billion sludge contract. But she still signs her correspondence "CouncilwomanMonica."

In September, she left her home overlooking the Detroit Golf Club for Alderson, a minimum-security prison inWest Virginia overlooking the Alleghany Mountains.

Unlike her former top aide, Sam Riddle, who this month was transferred to the medium-security ButnerFederal Correctional Complex in North Carolina to serve time for bribery, Conyers is doing her bit at aminimum-security prison that looks like a prep school.

Dubbed "Camp Cupcake" for its reputation as one of the cushiest correctional facilities, the 1,128-femaleinmate facility offers washers, dryers and curling irons; access to pedicures and manicures and windows that

open. It also lacks what is standard in most lockups a razor-wire fence.

"It's not a lot to do here. The main place of employment closed down," wrote Conyers. "I keep busy byknitting, crocheting and (beading) going to church. I am continuing my religious studies on my own. Other thanthat, it 's mainly recreation choices because classes are filled."

But life isn't all Scripture and yarn. Conyers wrote that she yearns for Detroit. Her earliest possible release isMay 16, 2013.

"As for me and my family, we are well and they visit often. But it is cold now and snowing so I told them tocome back when the weather changes. Safety reasons!" Conyers wrote from the prison that it is aneight-hour drive from Detroit.

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"Please tell the Detroiters, I miss helping them and I love them. They have sent me numerous letters andbooks to read, cards also."

Conyers' letter, written in a curlicue cursive, also displays a fondness for punctuation often deployed byadolescents and the text-message set.

"By the way, how was the auto show, did it rain or snow on the people? (SMH) LOL!" wrote Conyers.

The line is an apparent swipe at her foes during the messy fight over Cobo Center who claimed its roof leaks.The acronyms are teen-speak for "shaking my head" and "laughing out loud."

Conyers didn't respond to a letter that asked more probing questions and her attorney, Douglas Mullkoff,denied a request for an interview. But she could be talking soon.

A judge on Wednesday ordered taxpayers to foot the bill for hotel and travel for Mullkoff next week for adeposition in a case involving her time on the pension board.

Copyright 2011 The Detroit News. All rights reserved.

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