Show notes
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.
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#shotcaller #federalprison #truecrimestories
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Thank you to HIMS & FACTOR for sponsoring this episode:
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Hosted, Executive Produced & Edited By Ian Bick:
https://www.instagram.com/ian_bick/?hl=en
https://ianbick.com/
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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
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