NEW YORK (AP) -- Martha Stewart took up the cause of prisoners' rights during her five months in prison and calls her time behind bars "life altering and life affirming." Other white collar criminals have proclaimed themselves equally transformed after emerging from prison. But are they really?
"If you're changed, then let's see the action," said Fred Shapiro, a lawyer who served time for bank fraud in Philadelphia in the 1990s, and went back to prison for a separate episode of white-collar crime 10 years later. "Everyone says they've changed after they've left prison, but only time will tell."
Stewart, released Friday after five months in prison for lying about a stock sale, is the latest in a long line of high-profile white-collar convicts - from junk bond king Michael Milken to hotel queen Leona Helmsley - who have returned to freedom saying they have been renewed.
Albert N. Martin | 2/24/2008
