Welcome to White-Collar Journal

A Forum for Stories of Incarceration, Justice, and Redemption

Dear Readers,

I didn’t expect to end up in a federal prison camp at the age of seventy-six, much less walk out with stories I felt compelled to tell. But that’s what happened.

My name is John DiMenna. I’m a writer, a former businessman, and a federal inmate who served eighteen months in a federal prison for financial fraud. During that time, I lived among a muddled brotherhood of white-collar offenders, drug dealers, gang members, and others the world prefers to forget. It was a different kind of hell. But in some ineffable way, it was also a profoundly human experience.

This newsletter, White-Collar Journal, is a forum for overlooked voices and complicated truths that don't fit into news headlines or political soundbites. I write about what prison was really like—not just the physical space but the psychological terrain: guilt, shame, absurdity, unexpected grace. I’ll share the real day-to-day wearing down and the darker and solitary realities of enduring prison life. I’ll share portraits of the men I met inside. Some I’ll never forget. Others, I wish I could.

I'll also write about criminal justice reform—where it's working, where it's failing, and what it feels like to try to rebuild your life after falling off the map. Sometimes, I’ll share excerpts from my memoir (A Prison of My Own) or a TV treatment I’m developing (The Camp), both drawn from my real experience.

This isn’t a confessional. It’s a lens—a literary, personal, and sometimes critical perspective on a system that affects millions of Americans yet remains largely misunderstood.

If any of that resonates with you, I hope you’ll subscribe, share, and respond. I welcome dialogue. This journal isn’t just mine—it’s meant to be a conversation.

More soon,
John DiMenna
Writer. Former inmate. Still learning.

John DiMenna is a writer and memoirist exploring transformation, resilience, and ethical reckoning. He writes at White-Collar Journal.