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Locked In with Ian Bick

Ian Bick
Locked In with Ian Bick
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  • Locked In with Ian Bick

    I Became a Shot Caller in Federal Prison — Here's What That Life Really Looks Like | Danny Walsh

    2026-08-13 | 3h 29 mins.
    Danny Walsh grew up in Texas with a mother consumed by addiction and a father who was never in the picture — and when he and his brother essentially raised each other as teenagers on their own the path toward trouble found them both before anyone was old enough to stop it. In this episode of Locked In with Ian Bick, he shares how an early sentence in the Texas Department of Corrections led him to become a peckerwood and join one of the most notorious prison gangs in the Texas system before a federal conviction in his early 20s handed him 25 years and sent him into the most brutal maximum security federal penitentiaries in the United States. He opens up about becoming a shot caller — the power, the rules, the violence and the politics that position actually involves — what spending years in solitary confinement did to him mentally and what the PTSD that prison produced has made reacclimating into society nearly impossible in ways that the system that put him there has done almost nothing to address.
    _____________________________________________
    #shotcaller #federalprison #truecrimestories
    _____________________________________________
    Thank you to HIMS & FACTOR for sponsoring this episode:
    Hims: Visit https://hims.com/lockedin to get a personalized, affordable plan that gets you.
    _____________________________________________
    Factor: Head to https://factormeals.com/lockedin50off and use code lockedin50off to get 50 percent off and 1 free breakfast item per box for 1 year, while supplies last until!
    _____________________________________________
    Hosted, Executive Produced & Edited By Ian Bick:
    https://www.instagram.com/ian_bick/?hl=en
    https://ianbick.com/
    _____________________________________________
    Timestamps:
    00:00 Growing up in a rough Houston neighborhood
    04:08 Early drinking and harmful experiences
    06:06 Normalizing poverty and abuse
    06:55 Time in isolation and breaking down demons
    08:15 Fighting to stay un-institutionalized
    09:59 The dangers of accepting prison as home
    10:40 A bus station lesson in institutionalization
    11:40 Refusing to accept a prisoner's life
    12:52 Youthful dreams of the military and football
    13:48 Arrested and learning the code
    15:15 Brother's tough lessons on loyalty
    16:32 Drug use and the cycle of incarceration
    17:42 Facing federal charges and refusing to snitch
    19:43 The deal is a lie: 25-year sentence
    22:20 Betrayed by a lawyer and becoming hardened
    24:39 Why the excessive sentence?
    25:45 Rejecting the state's offer on principle
    28:01 Adapting from state to federal politics
    29:49 TDC initiation: riots and lockdown
    34:05 Surviving lockdown and a cell fire
    36:15 Joining a Texas prison gang
    38:08 Your gang arrives in the feds
    39:37 Taking control and building respect
    41:07 The lie of gang philosophy
    44:32 The failure of the prison system
    46:40 Fighting for resentencing and 11 years over time
    48:42 Release: 23 years later and a new world
    52:35 Initial struggles with a changed society
    54:55 Getting a job and building a new life
    58:02 Fired by the state for tattoos
    01:00:49 The struggle for identity and self-love
    01:02:55 Jail habits that persist
    01:04:24 Why not join another white gang?
    01:05:43 Misconceptions about white inmates
    01:08:12 A fight for respect over a TV
    01:13:40 Relationships with other races and gangs
    01:18:00 Prison economy and cross-racial business
    01:20:18 How did you become a shot caller?
    01:23:56 Dispensing justice and avoiding trouble
    01:27:10 Sex cases and the white racial code
    01:30:40 The meaning behind prison tattoos
    01:34:38 Regretting gang involvement and ink
    01:36:43 The origins of the Woods and Texas gangs
    01:40:22 Are all white guys 'peckerwoods'?
    01:41:06 Why did you stay in the gang in the feds?
    01:42:08 Treachery within your own ranks
    01:45:39 Can the BOP eliminate gangs?
    01:49:10 Why the feds keep you divided
    01:55:20 The burden of being a shot caller
    01:59:40 Becoming an animal and losing yourself
    02:02:50 The mental toll and nightmares of prison
    02:05:28 Learning to keep your word and integrity
    02:08:48 Feeling compelled to violence
    02:11:10 Coping with the trauma of solitary
    02:14:24 The need for prison reform and support
    02:18:15 Released with no help or programs
    02:23:52 Job struggles and endless punishment
    02:29:36 The ongoing stigma of a felony
    02:32:26 Corrupt guards and a lack of control
    02:36:10 The chaos of maximum-security life
    02:39:20 Debunking the 'sit to pee' myth
    02:43:04 You were left alone and the system failed you
    02:45:40 Learning to navigate prison safely
    02:48:00 Proving yourself and survival instincts
    02:50:07 Good guys in bad gangs
    02:53:35 A close call with a conspiracy to kill you
    03:00:52 Saved from a plot and changing your ways
    03:03:39 Why are you here and how did you survive?
    03:04:48 The struggle to find a job after power
    03:06:48 Women and bad company send men back
    03:08:23 Finding peace in a wine bar
    03:10:12 Learning to love yourself and move on
    03:12:42 Cherishing freedom and family
    03:16:32 Advice to your younger self
    _____________________________________________
    To advertise on the show, contact sales@advertisecast.com or visit https://advertising.libsyn.com/LockedInWithIanBicka
  • Locked In with Ian Bick

    I Killed Someone in Self Defense — Then Spent 10 Years in Prison Proving It | Erico Montalvo

    2026-08-12 | 2h 18 mins.
    Erico Montalvo grew up in Rhode Island without a father in the picture and a mother too consumed by the streets to be present — and by the time the system found him he had already cycled through juvenile detention multiple times and built an identity that the streets had shaped long before he was old enough to understand where that path was going. In this episode of Locked In with Ian Bick, he shares what happened just days after he turned 18 — an accidental altercation with a veteran that turned into a self-defense situation that ended in the veteran's death — and what being charged with murder instead of recognized as a victim of circumstance actually produced over the ten years he spent fighting his case from inside a Rhode Island county jail before finally taking a manslaughter plea deal and accepting a 13 year sentence.
    _____________________________________________
     #prison #selfdefense #truecrimestories
    _____________________________________________
    Thank you to FACTOR & HIMS for sponsoring this episode:
    Factor: Head to https://factormeals.com/lockedin50off and use code lockedin50off to get 50 percent off and 1 free breakfast item per box for 1 year, while supplies last until!
    _____________________________________________
    Hims: Visit https://hims.com/lockedin to get a personalized, affordable plan that gets you.
    _____________________________________________
    Connect with Erico Montalvo:
    YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@RicoStillMadeit
    Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ricostillmadeit/
    Website: https://linktr.ee/Ricostillmadeit
    _____________________________________________
    Hosted, Executive Produced & Edited By Ian Bick:
    https://www.instagram.com/ian_bick/?hl=en
    https://ianbick.com/
    _____________________________________________
    Timestamps: 00:00
    Guest Introduction
    00:22 Early Life in Providence
    02:00 Mother's Mental Health & Upbringing
    03:13 Father's Deportation
    05:00 Feeling Like an Outsider as a Kid
    07:36 First Wrong Turns & Finding Identity
    10:31 Gang Culture in Providence
    16:00 Homelessness & Juvenile Detention
    19:27 Getting His GED in Juvenile
    21:00 Sponsor Segment: Factor Meals
    23:07 Turning 18 & a Spiritual Warning
    28:00 Close Calls on the Streets
    30:40 The Night of the Incident
    37:22 Fight, Stabbing, and Escape
    43:03 Learning the Victim Died
    43:50 Realizing the Victim Was a Veteran
    47:00 Hiding Out and Seeking Help
    50:03 Getting Arrested
    52:54 Interrogation & Initially Charged with Murder
    01:00:00 First Lawyer & a Broken System
    01:05:59 Meeting Dawn Huntley, a New Lawyer
    01:09:32 Adapting to Prison Life
    01:13:00 Finding Faith in Prison
    01:21:00 Starting to Turn His Life Around
    01:30:00 Facing a 60-Year Offer
    01:37:00 COVID Stalls the Case
    01:41:00 Considering Trial
    01:49:00 A Shocking Plea Deal: 25 Years with 3 to Serve
     01:55:50 Walking Through the Sentence
    02:03:11 Release and Adjusting to Freedom
    02:08:00 Finding Purpose and New Community
    02:14:20 No Regrets and a Mission
    _____________________________________________
    To advertise on the show, contact sales@advertisecast.com or visit https://advertising.libsyn.com/LockedInWithIanBicka
  • Locked In with Ian Bick

    I Was a Doctor — Then Got Sent to Federal Prison for 14 Years | Rich Morgan

    2026-08-11 | 1h 57 mins.
    Rich Morgan graduated from the New York College of Osteopathic Medicine in 1998, completed his residency at NYU Rusk Medical Center in 2002, and had everything a decade of medical school and training was supposed to produce — until a common dental procedure exposed him to opioids and changed the direction of everything he had spent his career building. In this episode of Locked In with Ian Bick, he shares what the ten year opioid addiction that followed that dental procedure actually looked like, what writing fraudulent prescriptions to pharmacies to fuel his addiction and eventually selling prescriptions to drug dealers actually involved, what getting caught after a customer cooperated with the government actually felt like, and what being sentenced to 168 months in federal prison as a doctor — and navigating the federal system as a Jewish inmate — actually required of him before he was finally ready to rebuild what the addiction and the federal system had taken.
    _____________________________________________
    #doctor #prison #truecrimestories
    _____________________________________________
    Thank you to HIMS & FACTOR for sponsoring this episode:
    Hims: Visit https://hims.com/lockedin to get a personalized, affordable plan that gets you.
    _____________________________________________
    Factor: Head to https://factormeals.com/lockedin50off and use code lockedin50off to get 50 percent off and 1 free breakfast item per box for 1 year, while supplies last until!
    _____________________________________________
    Connect with Rich Morgan:
    Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/richmorgan8761/?hl=en
    LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/richard-morgan-b45366143
    _____________________________________________
    Hosted, Executive Produced & Edited By Ian Bick:
    https://www.instagram.com/ian_bick/?hl=en
    https://ianbick.com/
    _____________________________________________
    Timestamps: 
    00:00 Introducing Rich Morgan
    00:16 Growing Up on Long Island
    01:04 Parents and Early Life
    01:51 Dreaming of Medicine
    02:17 The Incident That Inspired Him
    03:33 Fascination with Fixing
    04:33 Medical Shows and College
    05:31 College and Med School
    06:18 What is a DO?
    08:46 DO vs MD Schooling
    09:57 The Growing Prevalence of DOs
    11:05 Salary and Residency
    12:15 The First Pill
    14:09 The Spiral Begins
    15:12 The First Pill Experience
    17:19 Dentists and Overprescription
    19:30 Writing Himself Prescriptions
    21:39 Life at the Height of Addiction
    23:12 9/11 and Its Impact
    26:10 Sponsor Break: Weight Loss by HIMS
    27:33 No Oversight in Hospitals
    28:56 Pharmaceutical Wild West
    31:16 Self-Image and Dope Sickness
    33:16 Patients and Slipping Up
    38:53 The Deal with a Dangerous Patient
    40:49 Arrest and the Fallout
    44:00 Sponsor Break: Factor Meals
    46:01 Released on Bail
    49:01 Sentenced to 14 Years
    52:32 Why No Manslaughter Charge?
    56:56 The Real Reason for Selling
    58:05 Wife's Reaction and Family Drama
    01:01:50 Comparing Sentences: Jared Fogle
    01:02:39 Meeting Mobsters in Prison
    01:04:33 Father's Support
    01:06:06 First Stop: Transfer to Prison
    01:07:40 Life at Morgantown
    01:12:44 Pedophiles in Prison
    01:16:51 Respect as the Doctor
    01:20:05 Medical Care in Prison
    01:23:24 Jewish Power in the Federal System
    01:27:00 Power of the Jewish Community
    01:28:25 Money and Influence Behind the Scenes
    01:31:03 Taking Advantage of Religious Rights
    01:33:52 Smuggling and Prison Life
    01:37:08 What Happened to His Medical License
    01:43:13 A New Career at His Med School
    01:48:49 A Bad First Date
    01:51:15 Inmate Dating and Visiting Lists
    01:56:40 Final Thoughts and Thanks
    _____________________________________________
     To advertise on the show, contact sales@advertisecast.com or visit https://advertising.libsyn.com/LockedInWithIanBicka
  • Locked In with Ian Bick

    I Was a Tango Blast for 10 Years in Federal Prison — Here's What That World Really Looks Like | Eli44

    2026-08-11 | 2h 10 mins.
    Eli44 grew up in Texas, took to the streets at a young age, did his first bid in the Texas Department of Corrections where he joined the Tango Blasts, and then caught a nearly 15 year federal sentence that sent him into federal medium security facilities and federal penitentiaries where he spent nearly a decade navigating the gang politics, the violence, and the disciplinary transfers that define life as a Tango Blast inside the federal system. In this episode of Locked In with Ian Bick, he shares what being a Tango Blast inside the federal system actually looks like — the rules, the politics, the violence, and the specific survival mindset that nearly 10 years inside some of the most brutal federal facilities in the country required of him — and what finally getting out and turning his life completely around actually took after everything those years produced.
    _____________________________________________
     #crimestory #prison #truecrimestories
    _____________________________________________
    Thank you to FACTOR & HIMS for sponsoring this episode:
    Factor: Head to https://factormeals.com/lockedin50off and use code lockedin50off to get 50 percent off and 1 free breakfast item per box for 1 year, while supplies last until!
    _____________________________________________
    Hims: Visit https://hims.com/lockedin to get a personalized, affordable plan that gets you.
    _____________________________________________
    Connect with Eli44:
    Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thereal_eli44/
    YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCd1XjhE0mMb34j-FwQsez3A/feed
    TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thereal_eli44
    _____________________________________________
    Hosted, Executive Produced & Edited By Ian Bick:
    https://www.instagram.com/ian_bick/?hl=en
    https://ianbick.com/
    _____________________________________________
    Timestamps:
    00:00 Introduction
    00:20 Growing Up in Austin
    01:47 Finding the Streets and Music
    04:21 Early Hustle and First Arrests
    05:59 The Katrina Clash and Carrying a Weapon
    08:00 The Music Scene and Getting Deeper
    10:10 Jack Boys and Robberies
    13:29 Caught with Drugs and a Gun
    15:31 Going to TDC and Getting Initiated
    18:00 Life in the State Prison
    20:00 The Music Blows Up
    22:00 Returning to the Drug Game
    24:04 The Setup and Getting Caught
    34:00 The Arrest and Aftermath
    36:48 The Feds Get Involved
    40:35 Cartel Pressure and Family Threats
    44:00 Federal Sentence and Time in County
    47:59 Life in the Federal Pen
    54:00 The Politics of the Yard
    01:04:00 A Standoff and Stealing an Amp
    01:09:00 The Theft and Its Consequences
    01:13:00 A Show of Force and Diplomacy
    01:20:00 A Fight and a Stabbing
    01:29:00 Spiritual Awakening at Atwater
    01:36:00 The SMU Program
    01:44:00 Meeting Kodak Black
    01:50:00 The Horrors of the SMU
    01:55:00 Texas Syndicate Rivalry
    02:00:00 Life After the SMU
    02:00:04 The SMU Experience
    02:02:30 Coming Home and New Beginnings
    02:04:55 Current Life and Outreach
    _____________________________________________
    To advertise on the show, contact sales@advertisecast.com or visit https://advertising.libsyn.com/LockedInWithIanBick
  • Locked In with Ian Bick

    The FBI Set Me Up While I Was Running for Mayor — Then I Got Sent To Prison | PG Sittenfeld

    2026-08-09 | 1h 30 mins.
    PG Sittenfeld grew up in Ohio in a good family, went to Princeton, worked in nonprofits, and eventually built a three term career on Cincinnati City Council before an unexpected FBI indictment for bribery and extortion — built around an undercover operation he argues never should have produced charges — derailed everything he had spent his career building at the exact moment he was running for mayor. In this episode of Locked In with Ian Bick, he shares what the FBI indictment actually looked like, what going to trial and losing some counts actually felt like, what the 16 month sentence and the four months he served inside federal prison actually required of him, and what eventually getting out for appeal, losing that appeal, receiving a pardon from Donald Trump, and then having the Supreme Court rule in his favor actually produced in terms of what he now understands about the federal justice system and the people who run it.
    _____________________________________________
     #fbi #truecrimestories #ohio #prison
    _____________________________________________
    Connect with PG Sittenfeld:
    https://pgsittenfeld.com/
    _____________________________________________
    Hosted, Executive Produced & Edited By Ian Bick:
    https://www.instagram.com/ian_bick/?hl=en
    https://ianbick.com/
    Timestamps:
    00:00 Introducing PG Sittenfeld
    00:18 Upbringing and family life
    04:20 Going to Princeton
    07:20 Moving to England
    09:07 Returning to Cincinnati
    10:40 Running for city council
    14:34 Life as an elected official
    18:26 The FBI investigation begins
    24:50 The cooperating witness
    25:44 The prosecutorial Truman Show
    31:36 The day of the arrest
    44:32 A year and a half to trial
    47:45 The trial and the verdict
    52:00 The inconsistent verdict
    56:20 Jury selection and deliberation
    57:31 Sentencing to prison
    01:01:42 Reporting to prison camp
    01:05:25 Life inside the camp
    01:13:43 The Sixth Circuit ruling
    01:15:31 Shocking early release
    01:19:41 The Supreme Court petition
    01:21:52 Receiving a presidential pardon
    01:26:18 Lessons learned and moving forward
    _____________________________________________
    To advertise on the show, contact sales@advertisecast.com or visit https://advertising.libsyn.com/LockedInWithIanBicka
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About Locked In with Ian Bick
Real stories from the people everyone else judges first. Locked In with Ian Bick is a podcast hosted by Ian Bick, a former federal inmate turned podcaster. The show features raw conversations with former inmates, recovering addicts, bikers, law enforcement officers, attorneys, investigators, and people who have lived through crime, prison, addiction, trauma, and redemption. Each episode dives deep into real prison stories, life inside prison, the criminal justice system, street life, addiction recovery, mental health, and what it takes to rebuild after incarceration. Guests share what really happens behind bars, how people survive prison, and the difficult road to second chances after hitting rock bottom. If you're interested in prison stories, criminal justice experiences, life after prison, and honest conversations with people who have lived through the darkest chapters of their lives, you'll feel at home here.
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