CBC reporter Brian Stewart has been a close friend of Conrad Black's since they were at Thornton Hall private school together in 1961. About a month ago, Mr. Stewart ventured down to Florida to visit his jailed pal. Since his return to Toronto he has been sharing with interested listeners a careful but positive report about how he found Lord Black and life inside Coleman federal prison. "He is in good shape and he is in good spirits. He is reading a great deal, he seems to be getting along with everyone," says Mr. Stewart, who later in our conversation thought about it, and then downgraded the spirits adjective to "healthy." Mr. Stewart, who spent several hours with Lord Black in the "cafeteria-style" visitors room (which also features a screened outdoor patio), painted a relaxed picture of Coleman - or at least a not-Dickensian picture. "It is not a tense atmosphere at all. It's not a dangerous place. It's not as dramatic as you'd think." According to Mr. Stewart, Lord Black, who is known to be a voracious reader, has plenty of access to media - six or seven newspapers a day, a personal radio and a communal TV, plus books from the prison library, where he is spending a lot of time. True to form, Lord Black is a keen attendee at seminars being given on American politics. Mr. Stewart says Lord Black hasn't had any problems with prison food ("The guy hasn't got a palate anyway - all food is good to him") but over all, "boredom is a serious factor and he is missing the family." His wife, the columnist Barbara Amiel-Black, visits "at every opportunity," which works out to several times a week. "Barbara is as solid as a rock," Mr. Stewart says. So what did the two old school chums talk about? "Old times, life, how he's getting along. He sees this as a test of himself and is absolutely determined to do well."
