Award-winning podcaster starts career with KALW radio
Two life sentences that had him face 58 years behind bars did not deter longtime San Quentin resident Gregory Eskridge from pursuing and attaining personal growth, a higher education, and journalism awards.
Eskridge received a CDCR-recommended 1170 re-sentencing for exceptional conduct that allowed him to advance his parole board date and receive a parole grant in March.
“The commissioner mentioned despite my parole hearing being far out, he believed I was programming for real and true change. I had hope, despite not knowing if I would ever be released,” Eskridge said.
Before coming to San Quentin, Eskridge said he had started on a path of rehabilitation but still struggled with anger and negativity. He said his younger sister inspired his full turn toward self-healing and rehabilitation. His sister also played a pivotal role in his ability to maintain faith; they would read the Bible together by phone, engage in Bible study, and discuss lessons taught by preachers.
Eskridge said he knew he needed to change but did not know how. He said he felt tired of hurting and causing suffering to others, so he took a deep introspection to his younger self. “My sister was that spark,” Eskridge said. “She questioned my desire to come home. I started looking at my life in its totality, from understanding forgiveness, self-reflection, and victim impact. I believe you have to get tired of being a negative person and have to want something better for yourself.”
After 20 years of higher-level security yards, Eskridge arrived at San Quentin in 2012. “Before coming here, no one talked about rehabilitation. It was about survival,” Eskridge said. He said he met some incarcerated persons who programed and had the courage to do positive things.
In that year, he started to work with Troy Williams and SQ Prison Report. Back then, the Media Center only had a radio station with three computers and he said he has seen the space evolve into an award-winning organization. Eskridge received awards from the Society of Professional Journalist — the 2017 Excellence in Journalism, first place in Division A — and a 2022 Public Media Journalists Association award. He and his podcast were featured in a recent CBS Special Documentary.
Eskridge said working in radio gave him an understanding of empathy, compassion, and effective listening skills. He said reporter Nancy Mullane, Holly Kern, and producers at KALW Public Radio believed people felt curious about and wanted to hear what incarcerated individuals had to say.
“I have a responsibility to interviewees to represent the truth,” Eskridge said. “A great journalist is someone who is curious and somebody they can trust.”
He called his radio program well received by listeners. Comments from listeners in other countries have shed a new light on incarcerated persons. Eskridge said that over the last decade, KALW’s staff and volunteers taught, trained, and provided a platform pivotal for incarcerated voices. He said he looked forward to working with KALW after release.
““UnCuffed” is a vehicle for others to gain insight and hear experiences of incarcerated persons,” Eskridge said. “It is emotional leaving. I helped create something the world can hear.”
Ninna Gaensler-Debs, San Quentin’s program director said “UnCuffed” is starting a new fellowship and Eskridge will be the first person to lead the program.
“Someone who has lived, breathed, and done this,” she said.
“He brings a different kind of leadership from leading on the inside,” Debs said. “He is so much a community person. His character and personality gets people involved where they can grow and have the confidence inside and outside of the Uncuffed classroom setting.”
Of the dozens of self-help groups Eskridge had attended, he said No More Tears had a great impact because a guest speaker spoke of losing her sons to gun violence.
“Seeing her pain and anguish, I started to think about the harm I caused when I took a life,” Eskridge said. “I never wanted to cause harm to anyone else again. This set me off on this journey of rehabilitation.”
Eskridge said other programs such as GRIP, VOEG, CGA, House of Healing, Restorative Justice, Yoga, Transformative Mediation, and CRP Reentry all fundamentally affected his personal growth. He said volunteering as a tour guide for visitors to San Quentin helped him to speak clearly and confidently during the parole board process.
“None of these opportunities for me would have been possible without Lt. Robinson,” Eskridge said.
Eskridge graduated with an Associates of Arts degree in June of this year. He said Mount Tamalpais College helped improve his writing and speaking skills instrumental in his development of his beliefs and ethics.
