Current and New Subscribers
A guide to White Collar Journal
Welcome to White Collar Journal
A forum for lived experience, criminal justice, and the personal search for redemption
Welcome to White-Collar Journal. You may notice our new logo — part of a fresh start here at White-Collar Journal. Whether you’re a new subscriber or catching up, this post will help you navigate what to expect — and where to begin.
This project is rooted in my lived experience: a real estate executive turned federal inmate, now reflecting on that journey through writing. I publish three times a week — each post part of an ongoing exploration of incarceration, justice, and the long road home.
🕊️ Sundays — Prison Camp
Narrative excerpts from my memoir-in-progress, A Prison of My Own. These serialized accounts trace my time in a federal prison camp: the arrival, the adjustment, the brotherhood, and the reckoning. They are written in literary prose and grounded in lived experience.
Start here:
“Welcome to White-Collar Journal”
“Welcome to Prison”
“Arrival in Prison”
“Becoming an Inmate” “Becoming An Inmate Continued” “White Collar Journal: One Month In” “Prison is Home”
⚖️ Wednesdays — Justice Notes
Essays on criminal justice reform from the inside out: sentencing, reentry, restitution, and the enduring stigma of incarceration. These reflections ask how justice might look different when shaped by those who have lived its consequences.
Read these:
“Sentencing Reform”
“Homecoming” “Restitution” “Sentencing the Family”
✍️ Thursdays — Notes from Exisle
Log/verse entries written from my bunk — raw, poetic fragments of prison life. Stream-of-consciousness, memory, and meaning-making in real time. A place where fewer words carry the weight of survival.
Sample entries: “Hell Freezes Over”
“Taking Stock” “Sentencing Day” ‘Prisoners Lament” “The Track”
Thank you for reading. I invite you to follow along, respond, share, and stay with me as the story unfolds.
— John DiMenna