Biography
Kory McClary is an incarcerated New Jersey writer and contributor to Prison Journalism Project. He has also published as Kory “Hussain” McClary. Inquest reported in November 2025 that he described being moved into a psychiatric unit and placed in an anti-suicide restraint as punishment for publishing about a death in his New Jersey prison. This profile concerns that reported retaliation for journalism, attributed to his account rather than presented as an adjudicated finding. Prison Journalism Project’s May 2026 contributor biography identifies him as incarcerated in New Jersey, and its editorial note says it verified the writer’s identity and basic institutional facts. A separate May 2026 first-person essay describes approximately two weeks of solitary while a contraband disciplinary matter was resolved; that episode is not the psychiatric-unit retaliation reported by Inquest. Exact dates, duration and any formal disciplinary outcome of the reported journalistic retaliation are not established in the reviewed sources.
Verified detail sources (October 9, 2026): Kory McClary identifies his own Black history in this February 25, 2024 essay and refers to himself with he/him. PJP places the essay in its series about incarcerated Black Americans and states that it verified the writer’s identity. No birthdate is estimated from historical age reports. Source 1.
Photo source: Prison Journalism Project. Named author portrait; photographer not specified. Source image reproduced without alteration.
