From Locked In to Unlocked (feat. Ian Bick)

Summary

Unlocked with Savannah Chrisley: "From Locked In to Unlocked" (feat. Ian Bick)

Release Date: January 27, 2026

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Episode Overview

This episode brings together Savannah Chrisley and Ian Bick in a revealing and candid discussion about the realities of incarceration, personal responsibility, and bounce-back after high-profile mistakes. Ian, host of the "Locked In" podcast and a former federal inmate himself, shares his tumultuous journey from teenage nightclub promoter to prisoner, and now to successful podcaster. The conversation dives deep into the humanity of people within the justice system, sheds light on the messiness and irony of criminal justice, and examines lessons learned through hardship.

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Main Topics & Key Insights

1. Introducing Ian Bick & Podcast Synergy

• Humanizing Justice:
  • Ian’s podcast, "Locked In," focuses on the human stories behind incarceration, involving not just former inmates, but also law enforcement, lawyers, and victims.
  • "What we do is we basically humanize their stories…this person's a human too." (Ian, 01:18)
• Mutual Respect:
  • Savannah praises Ian’s human approach: "We all go down different paths. We may make mistakes. We may suffer consequences. Like, it's life. Life is messy." (Savannah, 01:51)

2. Ian’s Wild Ride: From Teen Promoter to Federal Inmate

• Early Ventures:
  • Ian started promoting and organizing teen parties and concerts while still in high school.
  • Booked acts like Asher Roth and Big Sean before legal trouble emerged.
  • "I started a little business in high school and I made a bunch of money doing that." (Ian, 02:24)
• Financial Missteps:
  • To fund shows, Ian borrowed, promising guaranteed returns, unaware he was operating a Ponzi scheme.
  • "Once you start telling one lie, you're continuously telling more and more and more." (Ian, 03:48)
• Consequences:
  • FBI, IRS, and postal inspectors got involved; $500,000 was lost.
  • "I got three years in federal prison over $500,000." (Ian, 04:56)

3. Legal Process & Family Impact

• Prosecution Dynamics:
  • Went to trial because the plea deal wasn’t materially different; judge got to see his true character.
  • "My lawyer believed in me. And our whole defense was these were overzealous parents that were investing...it wasn't intentional fraud." (Ian, 06:51)
• Parental Response:
  • His mom was devastated, not from a family of entrepreneurs, felt lost and heartbroken.
  • "The hardest part of this whole situation was on my mom...she was the one that helped pay for the attorney." (Ian, 10:06)

4. Experience within the Criminal Justice System:

• Pretrial & Prison Realities:
  • Pre-trial, Ian was banned from social media, which was eventually ruled unconstitutional.
  • "Pretrial probation. You're guilty until proven innocent…in the federal system." (Ian, 11:52)
• Comparison with Famous Cases:
  • Savannah references Billy McFarland (Fyre Festival): "That's literally—I was thinking that in the back of my head." (Savannah, 12:08)
  • Ian: "So different though, because I actually did the shows...he owes $30 million and he did less time than I did." (Ian, 12:13)

5. Life in Prison: Stories & Survival

• Facilities & Conditions:
  • Housed in multiple notorious facilities (MDC Brooklyn, Fort Dix, Oxford, Danbury), described harsh conditions, lack of hygiene, power abuses.
  • "MDC Brooklyn…just dirty, bad food, fights." (Ian, 15:54)
• Notable Inmates:
  • Crossed paths with Joe Giudice (Real Housewives), George Papadopoulos, and was at Fort Dix, "where Diddy is." (Ian, 16:32; 16:42)
• Prison Economy & Hustles:
  • Phone and hooch (alcohol) hustle, contraband, invented creative ways to survive and profit.
  • "You could buy a cell phone. It's just…it's crazy in there." (Ian, 18:04)
• Nickname 'McLovin':
  • Earned the nickname from fellow inmates; "People on social media say my cheeks are still red from that slap—stop." (Ian, 19:14)

6. Dangers and Abuses: Physical and Emotional

• Violence & Vulnerability:
  • Suffered attempted extortion and physical intimidation, at one point paying for protection.
  • "I paid for protection in prison...these guys from DC tried to extort me." (Ian, 18:53)
• Sexual Harassment by Staff:
  • A male guard attempted to assault Ian; authorities did little in response.
  • "A male guard actually tried to almost rape me in the kitchen...There’s no cameras in these facilities. So it's always your word against the guards." (Ian, 25:51; 26:14)
  • "He’s been accused of that before and he’s no longer here...He got away with it." (Ian, 27:01)

7. Systemic Problems in Prison and Transit

• Transit Nightmares:
  • Described “diesel therapy” (prisoner moves) and the inhumanity of prisoner transit, especially for women.
  • "Everyone's just chained up and shackled and herded like sheep. And you're freezing too…They're not giving out coats." (Ian, 24:02–24:46)
• Halfway House Problems:
  • Adjusting after prison can be harder than prison itself: "Worse than real prison...They make it extremely hard." (Ian, 14:58; 15:37)

8. Returning to Prison for a MrBeast Challenge

• YouTube Experiment:
  • Ian was cast in a MrBeast video, living in a simulated prison for 100 days with an NYPD cop for $500,000.
  • "I left my whole world…I did it, and I ended up winning 240,000." (Ian, 29:23; 31:01)
  • "It was worse than real prison. It was psychologically draining." (Ian, 31:12)

9. Reflection, Restitution, and Redemption

• Paying It Forward:
  • Ian used the MrBeast winnings to pay restitution.
  • "I paid 150,000 restitution...now it's at about 193,000 and my goal is to pay it off this year." (Ian, 32:43)
• Changing the Narrative:
  • Focus on giving a voice to ordinary people affected by the justice system, not just celebrities.
  • "The main priority of my show is people that aren't famous...giving them a voice." (Ian, 34:22)
• Ambition:
  • "I have over 500 episodes and I put out five a week." (Ian, 35:17)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Lying as a Slippery Slope:

  • "Once you start telling one lie, you're continuously telling more and more and more. And before I knew it, turned into borrowing from one person to pay off another..." (Ian, 03:48)

• On Justice System Ironies:

  • "Pretrial probation. You're guilty until proven innocent…in the federal system." (Ian, 11:52)

• On Prison Culture:

  • “New Year’s Eve in prison is more lit than any club you could ever imagine.” (Ian, 19:37)

• On Abuse by Staff:

  • “There's no cameras in these facilities. So it's always your word against the guards, and the guard is always going to be in the right.” (Ian, 26:14)

• On Redemption:

  • "I think I clear my name by paying [the restitution] off because at that point, what can you say negative about me?" (Ian, 33:35)

• On Mental Strength:

  • “There’s no worse feeling in this world than being in a confined space when that door shut and you can’t get out.” (Ian, 31:59)

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• Ian explains his podcast’s mission: 01:07–01:50
• Ian’s early business, concerts, Ponzi scheme beginnings: 02:24–04:22
• Arrest and trial experience: 04:30–07:56
• Impact on family: 10:05–10:56
• Inside notorious federal jails and prisons: 13:31–18:46
• Survival and economy in prison: 18:46–20:20
• Abuse by staff and reporting process: 25:50–27:05
• The MrBeast 100-day prison challenge: 29:23–31:46
• Paying restitution & podcasting goals: 32:43–35:17

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Final Thoughts

This episode offers a rare, clear-eyed view into the realities and paradoxes of America’s justice system—mixing dark humor, humanity, and hard-won wisdom. Ian’s journey illustrates the possibility of redemption and the importance of sharing untold stories, while Savannah offers empathetic, sharp engagement that makes uncomfortable truths accessible. Both guests encourage listeners to remember the person behind the prison record, and to recognize that honesty, restitution, and storytelling can lead to meaningful change.

Where to find Ian and "Locked In":
"Just go to ianbick.com or search my name...YouTube, Spotify, Apple, Instagram…" (Ian, 35:22)

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Note: All ad reads, promotional segments, and unrelated content have been excluded per request.

Transcript

[A]

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[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Book today on the site or in the app. Welcome back to this week's episode of Unlocked.

[B]

I feel like it's been a while since I've recorded, but I am so excited. I have on a new friend now. I like to say I just did his podcast. Ian Beck, welcome.

[C]

Thank you so much for having me, Savannah. This is great.

[B]

So your podcast was awesome.

[C]

Yeah. I appreciate it.

[B]

You're a great interviewer.

[C]

Thank you. I'm glad I lived up to the potential.

[B]

Yes, it's amazing. So my podcast is called Unlocked. Yours is called Locked In.

[C]

Yep.

[B]

Right? Yes. Great.

[C]

So now we're Unlocked. You got Locked in first, and we unlocked it. Right.

[B]

Exactly. See, it's the right. Right sequence. Okay. And tell us a little bit about your podcast and how it came about.

[C]

So my podcast, I interview people that went to prison, but I also interview people in law enforcement, attorneys, victims, anyone really impacted by the criminal justice system.

[B]

Okay.

[C]

And what we do is we basically humanize their stories. We're always going through their upbringing, how they got into either their career or got to prison with or into their addiction, and how they were able to overcome it at the end. So there are aspects of it that are kind of click baity where, like, they're telling a prison war story or an arrest story, but ultimately it's for a greater purpose of this person's a human too. They've lived similar lives in their upbringing. Somewhere along the line, they went down a different path, whether that was a good side or the bad side. And this is how they turned it all around, too.

[B]

That's amazing. And that's. I definitely got that feeling, especially like, when doing your podcast. It is very humanized. It's like, hey, we're all people. We have different life stories. We all go down different paths. We may make mistakes. We may suffer consequences of other people. Like, it's life. Life is messy.

[C]

Yeah. And I got into it because I went to federal prison myself.

[B]

Yeah. So tell us. Tell us, first off, how old are you now?

[C]

I'm 30.

[B]

Okay, you're 30. And tell us your story. It's wild, but let's tell the audience.

[C]

So basically, when I was 18 years old, even before that, as a teenager, I was in the nightclub promotion business, I was doing teen parties. Like raves. I don't know if you went to one as a kid. Okay, yes, these non alcoholic ones, no name DJs. 10 bucks to get in teen parties is what we call them. So I started a little business in high school and I made a bunch of money doing that. And I thought the next level to that was concerts. So the first concert I ever booked was actually Asher Roth. Remember him from I Love college?

[B]

Oh my gosh. Yes.

[C]

So we did that, me and a few friends of mine my senior year of high school. And then the next one went right into the big leagues and booked Big Sean for an arena stop at our hometown at the college, raised money from friends and family, did the show, lost our shirts on the show because we were kids doing a big level. He just won Grammy at that point and kind of learned from that experience and said we were going to go off and do it more shows on our own because we were partnered with others. And basically I raised money from friends and family. And what I did, it was promise them their money back too. So I'd say, hey, Savannah, you invest into my company and I'm going to definitely guarantee you your money back. That's how it started. Eventually I would promise people a guaranteed return because I was so confident in the concert business or the electronics business. And as an investor, you're never supposed to guarantee someone a return.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

So I book all these concerts with anyone from Chief Keef to Tyga to the biggest DJs and hip hop artists in the world. And I lost everyone's money. And instead of saying I lost your money, I lied and said they made money. And once you start telling one lie, you're continuously telling more and more and more. And it, before I knew it turned into borrowing from one person to pay off another just to buy time to pay back that original loaner investment. And little did I know it was a Ponzi scheme at the time until.

[B]

Like, well, I mean, you're 17, 18 years old.

[C]

Like, I didn't really know. I. Not that it makes an excuse for it because I did lose people's money.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

But I didn't intentionally set out to defraud anyone. I intentionally lied during the process, but only because I was trying to do the right thing in the end, which just came back to bite me. So When I was 19, I ended up getting indicted by the FBI, the IRS, postal inspectors, they raided my house at 5 o' clock in the morning.

[B]

But on a whole show at this.

[C]

Time at my parents house, so.

[B]

So they raided your parents house?

[C]

Yeah, yeah, I had nothing. This wasn't one of those fraud cases where like I'm putting my kids through college, I'm, you know, driving fancy cars. If you googled my name, it says I bought jet skis and took a couple of trips. The loss amount was only $500,000. I mean, that's a lot of money. But compared to some of these cases where there's millions of dollars, you know, I got three years in federal prison over $500,000.

[B]

That is crazy. Did you go to trial or did you plead out?

[C]

Yes. So the prosecutors were like, your father and mother's case were super overzealous. They thought I was a big case. Because while this case was going on, I actually opened up the nightclub that was closed that I used to promote at, and I turned it into an electronic dance music club where I booked the Chain Smokers Steve Aoki Blau Adventure Club. Like every big DJ during that peak era, during 2013, 2014 played at this club. And I was gambling to, to fund this operation because I had no money, no investors left gambling. There was one point. I owed the chain smokers 25 grand because they played the show and the agent didn't realize I didn't pay them yet. So I owed them that money for like four months.

[B]

Stop.

[C]

I was selling off coolers in the club, pawning my car, everything, just to get them paid. I almost got blacklisted by like every major agency, which is funny now because I'm repped by an agency.

[B]

That's hilarious.

[C]

Life came full circle.

[B]

Yeah. So when all of this happened, so what was it? Obviously you had prosecutors who made this seem like it was a way bigger deal than it was. Granted, like you said, yes, $500,000 is a lot of money, but not when you see some of these other cases. So you went to trial or no?

[C]

Yeah, so their plea deal was like the same amount of time I got after trial. So, you know, they always say you get more time after trial. In my case, it actually helped to go to trial cause the judge got to understand me as a person and not just another name on paper. After you take a plea deal.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

So my lawyer believed in me. And our whole defense was these were overzealous parents that were investing say 50 grand into an 18 year old kid for a guaranteed rate of return.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

And it wasn't intentional fraud. I didn't set out to defraud.

[B]

So how did the government kind of get their eyes on you was there a parent that went and complained or.

[C]

So it was a local case at first it was the local police department. I had went to the Department of Banking because I got a subpoena and I testified by myself without an attorney trying to make it right. And during that time the local police were investigating and I guess someone had some poll because the state's attorney declined to prosecute. And if I had got prosecuted in the state, it would have been no jail time, accelerated rehabilitation, first time offender because I had no criminal record. Yeah, so then there's two postal inspectors waiting for me at the end of this hearing and they served me the target letter saying that the FBI, IRS, and all these government agencies, three letter words that I never knew existed were investigating me. And I'm 19 years old at the time.

[B]

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[A]

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[D]

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[C]

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[D]

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[C]

I've had some confessions in my history, but nothing to that detail. I'll give it glow by blow if you want.

[D]

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[B]

How did your parents react?

[C]

I didn't tell my parents until I actually got that target letter that I was under investigation. My mom was heartbroken because the hardest part of this whole situation was on my mom because she grew up in a very, you know, strict family where it was like, you had to go to college. I never went to college. You had to get good grades. You had to, you know, work that 9 to 5. There was no entrepreneurial ism in her family, so it was heartbreaking for her. She was the one that helped pay for the attorney and. And all of that. And then my dad, you know, my mom blamed my dad for me getting into this mess. Cause I take after him. He's, you know, he's a caterer and he. He's very entrepreneurial. He was a schoolteacher in his past life and now he' doing catering. And he kind of lives outside the gray line sometimes. You know, it's not always black and white for him.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

So that's what happened. They ended up indicting me. We still talk about to this day how, like, my mom, that vivid memory of my mom opening the door and they're yelling, step back. And you would have thought I was a terrorist.

[B]

That's crazy. They don't even treat. That's what I've said. With these, like, white collar crimes, something that could be treated with humanity and decency and all that goes out the window.

[C]

And it gets worse too. The news and the press had the whole article while they were slapping the handcuffs off of me. So if you look at the timestamps, I haven't even made out the door. And they're running the article.

[B]

And they're already running the article, which is telling you that these law enforcement officers are working with the press, which is a no, no. Like it's. It's crazy.

[C]

It's all polluted. And then I had a bond hearing where they said I couldn't use social media, which is what I used to run my business. I was banned from social media for like a year until a federal judge ruled that it was unconstitutional.

[B]

Constitutional.

[C]

Yeah. That was a part of my conditions. And then pretrial probation. You're guilty until proven innocent.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

In the federal system.

[B]

Holy cow. This is like, crazier than I realized.

[C]

Yeah. People would compare me to like Billy McFarland from Firefight.

[B]

That's literally. I was thinking that in the back of my head. But I was like, I don't want to insult this kid, but like, it's.

[C]

So different though, because I actually did the shows. Yeah, his dollar amounts way worse. But if you think about it, he owes $30 million and he did less time than I did. He got five years or six years, but he got out in less time.

[B]

What? Yeah, I didn't realize he got that little of time.

[C]

Yeah, I got a lot of time. Like based on the law enforcement officers I talked to and just everyone, you know, I mean, they. Someone had it out for you 100%.

[B]

And so when you had to go to prison, what was that like? Like what? When you had to report to prison. I mean, first off, were you able to self report or did.

[C]

No. So I pissed off the judge because I went out of state to gamble to pay off bills at the club.

[B]

Oh my God.

[C]

So I got my bond revoked. Some A friend snitched on me who wanted to take a friend at the time, he wanted to take over the club for me. So he reported that I was going out of state to gamble.

[B]

What a piece of shit.

[C]

You're telling me. Best thing that could ever happen to me, though, looking back on it. But the judge revokes my bond and going into prison. The only show I had ever watched was Orange is the New Black. I didn't watch Oz, I didn't watch Prison Break, none of those yet. Yeah. When I would later be at a camp, I'd actually sit on my bunk catching up on Orange is a New Black from a contraband cell phone.

[B]

That's hilarious.

[C]

Yeah. So I get my bond revoked and I go to a private detention facility in Rhode Island. That is like what you see on tv. I thought that's what prison was going to be like. The 60 days in, you're stuck in a UN unit and a cell. Locked doors. First two days you're waiting for your TB test to come back and everything. You're just locked down in the cell. You're not getting answers. You get one phone call. Group showers, like you're at the YMCA or whatever it was. It was miserable. I thought that was going to be my prison experience. But I had no idea that the prison story itself was going to be even crazier than how I got to prison in the first place.

[B]

And so what? So you're at this facility and then obviously you go through diesel therapy to get to all your luxurious accommodations.

[C]

Yeah. So I got sentenced a month after I got my bond revoked and I got three years in federal prison, three year supervised release with one of those years being on house arrest. So the guidelines after sentencing were eight to 12 years. We asked for zero, like house arrest, and the judge met in the middle and gave me basically four years because a year was house arrest.

[D]

Wow.

[B]

And so out of that three years of being in a facility, how much did you actually spend?

[C]

About 27, 28 months. I went in in October 2016 and then I got out January 2019.

[B]

Okay, and then when you got out, you went straight to house arrest?

[C]

Yeah, I was under the halfway house. I was in a halfway house for a few months. Which is worse than real prison.

[B]

Worse than real prison.

[C]

I have terrible.

[B]

I have heard people say, if I would have known it would have been like this, I would have just asked if I could have stayed longer.

[C]

It was terrible. There would be guys that would just go outside, out of bounds and say, take me back. I mean you have grown men that have just gotten done doing 20 years, say, and they're getting ordered around by a 20 year old who doesn't care about his or her job. That's enforcing petty rules that really don't make any sense. Like the state guys were allowed to have a smartphone, but the federal guys in the halfway house had to have a flip phone.

[B]

Why?

[C]

It's just this petty rules, you know, all of these different rules, they make it so hard to find work to.

[B]

Everything possible to rehabilitate yourself. Because what decent job or boss is going to let you take two hours off in the middle of the day to go and visit a probation officer?

[C]

Yeah, and then they constantly call your job throughout the day. They just make it extremely hard. So after I got sentenced, they moved me to MDC Brooklyn. That's where, you know, all the notorious names have been staying lately, ever since they closed mcc, which was the other brutal spot. That place is terrible. Yeah, just dirty, bad food fights. I was telling your dad how they would clean the showers as they would just take bleach and just throw it on the walls and occasionally give it a scrub and call it a day. Oh, there was no cleaning drains, nothing.

[B]

That's awful. So was there anyone well known that was in with you at the time?

[C]

Not at Brooklyn, but when I. And when I got to Fort Dix, I was the low security prison because my points were too high to go to a camp.

[B]

And Fort Dix is where did he is.

[C]

Yeah, that's where Diddy is. Yeah, I was with Joe Giudice from Real Housewives, which. And I actually got to interview his wife Teresa on the show, which was cool for life to come full circle. Cause I used to see her in the visiting room. And she went to Danbury Federal Prison, which is where I would later go. So I was with him. There was, I think, a guy from BMF at Fort Dix. I don't know which one. And there was other people along the way that were at Fort Dix. But then when I got to Oxford, Wisconsin, George Papadopoulos was there at the camp. And we were all snipping photos of him trying to sell to TMZ when he was in the library. Stop.

[B]

No, you were not.

[C]

We were on the Gmail. But it never worked. They didn't. Nothing ever happened of it.

[B]

That is why. What? You're such assholes.

[C]

That's what everyone does, you know.

[B]

No, trust me, I know. I dealt with it with dad.

[C]

But TMZ was lined up. They literally shut down the whole prison for this. We hadn't seen the warden in like a year. And the warden comes up when George gets there. They. They're making friends. Everyone's being polite. The place has to get cleaned days in advance. It was a whole spectacle just for a celebrity to come in prison.

[E]

Wow.

[B]

And just imagine, like, with Diddy going to prison. What? That was like.

[C]

Yeah. I mean, Fort Dix is the hood. Like, it's the. It's a college campus.

[B]

It's really.

[C]

So a picture. It's an old army barracks. It's three stories tall. One guard watches that whole unit you have on each floor. There's, like, separate showers and bathrooms. There's TV rooms on the ground floor with, like a pool table, a little workout area. And then there's different TVs for, like, the news, movies, a Spanish TV, things like that. There's no cameras in the building. You got guys making hooch and dropping the bags in the brick walls that are falling apart. In the bathrooms. Everyone's got cell phones. You can rent cell phone time. You could buy a cell phone. It's just. It's. It's crazy in there.

[B]

That is insane. Like, I can't even fathom all of it.

[C]

I mean, it's a 12 man rooms, everything. It's wild.

[B]

Holy cow. What would you say is. What's the CR that you had in prison?

[C]

There was a couple. So one of them was I. I paid for protection in prison. When I was at the low, these guys from DC tried to extort me, and they slapped the glasses off my face. And they wanted me to pay money weekly to their books for my parents. And people on social media say, my cheeks are still red from that slap stop.

[B]

I'm dying.

[C]

And in that same prison, they would call me McLovin, or the guards would call me Squints from the Sandlot. So those are some of the names. Or they called me, like, Bieber because I was always, like, running around, getting into trouble, gambling or. Or I was on a phone or just doing things. We would go live on Instagram and Facebook.

[B]

What? Oh, my God. That's what happens when you're, like, a young kid in prison.

[C]

Like, it was wild. New Year's Eve in prison is more lit than any club you could ever imagine.

[B]

What do you mean?

[C]

Everyone's drinking hooch. Guys are going wild. They're screaming up and down the halls. They're going live. They're making videos. They're talking to their wives. It's crazy. And the hustles men have in prison, like, call. They'll go on dating apps. At the time, it was pof. Have you ever heard of plenty of fish? No. So that was a big, like, dating app that guys would use in prison, and they would match with women who loved guys in prison, and they would FaceTime them, call them. They would put money on their books, and you would see them. These guys go on a visit, say, at Saturday with one girl, and then either that same afternoon or the next day go on another visit with another girl.

[B]

That is crazy. The fact that there are women who are searching for men in prison, like, is crazy. Now, once they're out, hey, free for all. But, like, why do you want to date somebody that is in prison?

[C]

Well, look how many female guards sleep with male inmates. Oh, yeah, I was in. I did six months in solitary, and there were so many guys that were in there under investigation.

[B]

Six months in solitary for what?

[C]

So I got caught on a video on a phone at Fort Dix of getting, like, choked out by. We were wrestling in the room, and they put me in protective custody for that because it got into the phone and they saw that video. Then from there, they shipped me to. You know how long it gets. How long it takes to get from New Jersey to Danbury when you're in the bop?

[B]

Oh, I don't even.

[C]

About four months.

[B]

That is it. That's what I mean. It makes no sense.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

Like. And that was strictly just for punishment.

[C]

Yeah, that Diesel therapy. And there's no such thing as, like, protective custody in prison. It's the same Thing as solitary, it's. You're. There's no benefits. So from there, they move me to Philly, then to Brooklyn, then to Danbury. Danbury is my hometown. Danbury is what Orange is the new black is based on. I get to Danbury, and I'm not even on the yard for, like, 15 hours when they call me the lieutenant's office, and they send me to solitary, and I'm in there for two weeks not knowing what's going on. And it's all because I dated a guard's cousin years prior, and he worked there, and he reported that he came to my house before. So it was a conflict of interest. And then those situations, they always remove the inmate.

[B]

What?

[C]

So I was in solitary for another three months there, where they made me, like, the orderly. I was painting the cells and stuff. And then from there, they shipped me to Oxford, Wisconsin, because they said they're going to send me to a camp. Out of all the camps on the east coast, they send me to the middle of nowhere in Wisconsin. And just to get to Wisconsin, I had to go to Ohio, then to Oklahoma City, then to Chicago.

[B]

Where in Oklahoma City?

[C]

They have a prison right in Oklahoma.

[B]

Which one is it? Was it okc?

[C]

Shoot, I forgot the name.

[B]

That's where mom went during transit.

[C]

Oh, yeah. She went through that same experience.

[B]

Well, she also had to go to Grady County Jail in Oklahoma, which was awful. But their Cimarron Correction Facility in Oklahoma is where.

[C]

Miserable.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

They have you chained and shackled on the plane. You're sharing, like, one bathroom with 300 guys on the ground floor when you get off the plane, and you're just waiting to go through all the motions and you get to yourself.

[B]

You ever remember on the plane how many women you saw there was, like.

[C]

Five or six women in the front of the plane? Yes.

[B]

Out of how many men?

[C]

There was a lot. There was, like, over 100 people. And the planes are like duct tape. Like duct tape, wind wings. The marshals are all, like, overweight, eating, like, fast food. They were eating, like, McDonald's in front of us, just chowing down. Yeah.

[B]

It's just. Honestly, the lack of humanity is crazy that everyone has to go through when you're in the system. Like, like I said, I believe there are repercussions for actions, but not so inhumane as to what you endured and what everyone else has to endure. And especially, like, as a woman, I have said women should not be transported with men because it's all different custody levels. Right. It's not just people Going to a camp, it's people going to higher security prisons. And some of these people just need to be in prison. And the shit that they say is crazy.

[C]

Yeah. So the BOP has classification levels, but that all goes out the window during transit.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

I was a guy there for fraud. No prior convictions. And they would always put me in cells with sex offenders because they thought I was a sex offender. At Fort Dix, they would call me a chomo, which is prison term for child molester. So guards would treat me like that. Case managers, inmates would always treat me like that. And then you're with murderers and you're with really severe violent crimes. So these women are getting cat called and on the plane, like teased and, you know, they're not in physical danger, but the emotional toll and mental toll takes. Yeah. And everyone's just chained up and shackled and herded like sheep. And you're freezing too. There's no coats. Like, this is in the middle of winter. You have just your T shirt on for transit and everything. They're not giving out coats. It's terrible.

[B]

It literally gives me goosebumps just to think, like, I remember every time I would hear from her when she would get to a stop, like, she. Other people would call me and be like, hey, they took her this morning. Thank God there were some decent people who would call and tell me. But then you just wait to hear. Right. So it could be days before you ever hear from them. And it was the most nerve wracking thing in the entire world.

[C]

But the camp was great. I was telling your dad I became the runner where I would, you know how he was living large. I was the guy, he would pay. Yeah. So I would run through the woods and get items like McDonald's or sushi or Chicago deep dish pizza or any of those, you know, types of food protein powder at the edge of the woods when. And people would actually leave to go, like, hook up with their wives. I didn't have family out there, so I didn't do that.

[B]

So I didn't do that.

[C]

My dad came to visit one week and he dropped the bag at the edge of the woods for us. But we just had that whole experience doing that. And then a male guard actually tried to almost rape me in the kitchen when I worked in the bakery.

[B]

No.

[C]

Yeah. Towards the end of my sentence, I was working in the bakery and people say they're like, McLovin almost got his buns taken while I was working.

[B]

Awful.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

And how did that, how did that affect you?

[C]

It sucked because the problem is, in a situation like that, one, no one wants to be the guy that says that another guy came onto him, especially in prison.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

Two, there's no cameras in these facilities. So it's always your word against the guards, and the guard is always going to be in the right. And if I put hands on the guard, I would have gotten like another five years in prison.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

So as a man, you're subjected to not being able to do anything. And there'll be people that will say, oh, I would have hit him and stuff. But it's like, no, you wouldn't know.

[B]

You wouldn't.

[C]

You're.

[B]

You're powerless.

[C]

Yeah. You have two months left on your sentence. I want to go home.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

And it's just like what you see happen to female inmates all over the country with male guards. This was a situation where the roles were reversed. And I'm sure I'm not the only one that's in that position.

[B]

There. There are a lot, and it's so disheartening and so disturbing. Do you know where the correctional officer is now?

[C]

So I reported it after the second attempt. What happened was, like, the first time he was like, feeling up my butt and my side and stuff. And then two weeks later, he cornered me in the walk in freezer. And after that I reported it and they removed him from the compound so that I didn't have to go to solitary. But I spent every day emailing, like the Inspector General, the BOP filing, like, all the forms. I even wrote a letter to my judge who then ordered the U.S. attorney to investigate. And all they said was, the BOP is investigating and they're satisfied with that. I had friends that I've had on my show that I was in prison with that have said they got questioned when they were at different prisons about it, but nothing ever came of it. And then years later, after I told that story on social media, a guard from Oxford Prison reached out to me and said, hey, was it this officer that did that? And I said, yeah. And he said, he's been accused of that before and he's no longer here. So I don't know what happened to him, but all I know is nothing ever happened. Like with the case. He got away with it. And my lawyer said, there's nothing you could do because it's you versus him, you know, but that's how these prisons are. And I'm not the only one. This is happening everywhere. You see it with so many female cases, too.

[B]

That's so disheartening and so I mean, I know people that it's happened to. And unfortunately, unfortunately, these correctional officers just get away with it because the people in custody are the bad guys, when in reality the ones running the prison should they belong behind a prison, you know, and that's. That's the sad part. And so on a lighter Note, though, the McLovin story. You also got a McLovin tattoo.

[C]

I got two. So I got one just with his name on it as a tribute. I made like a TikTok about it getting the tattoo. And I was like, this is my prison nickname because there's this whole Covid exploded, this niche of prison YouTubers. Prison tick tockers. Yes. And I think especially because of Tiger King.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

So that all came out.

[B]

Okay.

[C]

So I got that. And then a year later, actually in Tennessee, because we go and visit this correctional facility in Murfreesboro, and there was a tattoo artist that I got to interview there who was in prison. He was a former skinhead and he had a shop. So I was like, all right, what's something that I can do to help promote the business that on brand for me? So I said, do the McLovin portrait. So I have a portrait of McLovin on. On my leg here. And then I got a portrait of the Mr. Beast logo because I went back to prison this year or last year to compete to help pay off my restitution.

[B]

Yeah, can you please tell us that story? Because I love that. Like, what a hustler.

[C]

So in February of last year, I got reached out to by Mr. Beast's team about being cast in a. In one of his videos. And I had never watched a Mr. Beast video. I just knew of him. And they don't tell you anything. They're probably the strictest casting producers in the world. I didn't know it was like a prison show until I actually got there. They're so hush, hush. No knew not a thing. I just figured it was prison related because why else do you want to cast a felon in it? And there was rumblings among, like the prisoners, an influencer community. And so I ultimately get cast in it and I show up and I'm blindfolded in the trailer and walked. And when the blindfold comes off, you find out that I have to live in this prison that Mr. Beast built in North Carolina for 100 days. And my cellmate is a former NYPD cop. And the premise of the show is I. And this came out last year in August on his YouTube channel, is that we have to live together for 100 days. There's different challenges along the way, and if we win, we split $500,000. So we both went through. I had to survive more times in solitary. There's a part where I steal the books out of the library. We pay money for the rec yard. We do all these things. And I left my whole world. My family, my friends, my podcast. I had, like, 80 episodes banked up, so I edited all them the night before. We stayed up 24 hours. Me and my buddy Matt edited them all, put them together, got them out there, and to have it scheduled for when I was gone. And he ran my social media, and I did it, and I ended up winning 240,000.

[B]

Holy cow.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

And, like, how many people were.

[C]

And just me and. Me and the cop. That's it.

[B]

Oh, so you two just had to survive?

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

Like, what? How do you not survive it? I guess I do just step out.

[C]

Or if one of us leaves, then you. You automatically lose. It was worse than real prison. It was psychologically draining. I mean, you have no cell phones, no communication with your parents. There was an option to get a Visit on day 50, and only one of us could get it while the other person spent time in solitary. So you got to think, you know, when I was in prison the first time, my life was in shambles. Everything was falling apart, and that was kind of my time away from that. Then you get out, you rebuild your life. You have a great life to walk away. I mean, imagine you walked away from your life now with no communication, no living like Todd Chrisley.

[B]

You probably had some. Did you notice any, like, ptsd, kind of. When you went back to, like, living in a prison, did you have any kind of PTSD from your original time?

[C]

Definitely when I got put back in solitary, because there's no worse feeling in this world than being in a confined space when that door shut and you can't get out. I remembered so vividly my first night in prison. When that door shuts and you're in this tiny cell. That's definitely scary. Taking away your freedom, not having that control. I see why people are so, like, attached to their cell phones and whatnot. You know, you get. You get anxious. So I did that for 100 days, but it was worth it. Would I do it again? Probably not. But it was a once in a lifetime experience, and I got to reflect so much and appreciate life so much more, and it helped elevate me to this new level in life and where I'm supposed to be.

[B]

And you took part of that money and paid down your restitution, Right?

[C]

Yeah. So out of that money, like I applied money to taxes and then I paid 150,000 restitution. My court ordered restitution was about 490 something thousand. My co defendant who ended up snitching on me at trial, who got a plea deal on the state and probation, he only had to pay like 30,000. So I was responsible for the rest. So now it's at about 193,000 and my goal is to pay it off this year.

[B]

Good for you. That is awesome. Like granite. You, this whole time you've said, hey, yeah, it was wrong, but like, I didn't know it was a Ponzi scheme. I was trying to do the right thing. And if only I have said in situations like this, like meet a financial crime with financial punishment, let's do that now. If you think there's a it. I don't. It's. It's crazy to me.

[C]

I just, I interview so many people that have no intentions of paying the restitution back.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

And the fraud cases, even if they are remorseful, they still. It's not feasible to me. I think I clear my name by paying that off because at that point, what can you say negative about me? Yeah, you lost money at one point in time but were made whole. So yeah, that's my problem.

[B]

You're made whole in a time to where people probably need the money now than they did back then. You know, like, I just. That is really good for you.

[C]

Thank you.

[B]

That's awesome. So what's next for you?

[C]

I just want to keep working on the, on the podcast. Now we're finally breaching into bigger names on the show. Having like Teresa Giudice on was huge. We've had Lamar Odom, we had George Santos, who also got pardoned. Now having your dad and you and your brother on and because it's so hard for individuals to talk about prison.

[B]

Yes.

[C]

Especially the high profile ones because you don't know how many times we get blocked by publicists, by agents.

[B]

Yep.

[C]

I think Trump has helped change that narrative because there's so many people more open without a doubt talking about it. Like 10 years ago, would someone like your family be even allowed by PR teams to talk about it? I don't think so. I think the world has changed. So now we're getting these bigger names to talk about it. But the main priority of my show is people that aren't famous, that just live average everyday lives. Law enforcement or former felons. And giving them a voice because the news organizations don't necessarily give them those platforms or the big a list podcast. So they're able to come on my show, share their story. I barely talk or interrupt. Just kind of guide the conversation.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

And I put together these, like, documentary type stories and it's really cool. I've sitting with so many different people and I've met so many people. So I want to continue doing that. I have over 500 episodes and I put out five a week.

[B]

Gosh, that's amazing. Good for you. So where can people find your podcast?

[C]

They just go to ianbick.com or search my name. We have everything linked together. YouTube, Spotify, Apple, Instagram, everything like that.

[B]

Awesome. Well, thank you so much. You are so fun. I love it. This is like a really fun podcast for me.

[C]

Good. I'm glad. Savannah. You guys are great.

[B]

Thank you.

[C]

Definitely better than Chase.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

See? Thank you.

[B]

Yes.

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