Gregory's Writings
Nearly two decades of essays, reflections, and insights — covering prison reform, faith, restorative justice, personal growth, and life behind bars. 50 posts spanning June 2007 to November 2025.
Showing 50 posts
Every prison rule is written in the name of safety and security. But when those words become unquestionable, they stop protecting people and start protecting power. How a Prison's Favorite Phrase Became Its Most Dangerous Weapon.
The Church does not let public excitement call the shots. That is the whole point of the system. Gregory's detailed answer about the canonization process.
A firsthand reflection on why a life sentence — especially life without parole — can inflict deeper psychological and emotional harm than the death penalty.
This essay looks at how constant degradation inside prison changes people. Drawing on lived experience, sociology, and psychological research, it explains how humiliation, learned helplessness, and chronic stress damage identity, fuel PTSD, and make reentry into society even harder.
Prisons lock down before executions to control movement, prevent disturbances, and free staff to run an unusually complex procedure.
The phrase 'Club Fed' sounds clever until you realize how much damage it does.
Twenty-five years into a life-without-parole sentence, I've learned that time doesn't stop — it just changes shape.
Absolutely — the prison system has a moral obligation to provide real opportunities for personal development.
The Lucifer Effect — which explores the Stanford Prison Experiment — should be required reading for every single correctional employee.
When a correctional officer commits a crime and goes to prison, they don't stop being human — but they do stop being protected.
When I entered federal prison in 2000, it was obvious that 'rehabilitation' was more slogan than reality.
Yes, they do, though not in the way most people imagine.
Gregory has been writing since 2007 — nearly two decades of reflections from inside the federal prison system. His archive spans articles, essays, poetry, and personal stories across topics including prison reform, faith, health, legal analysis, and more. Some early posts were originally published on MySpace.
4 posts from the original site are password-protected and marked accordingly. Full article text is available for select recent essays.