Locked In with Ian Bick - I fell IN LOVE With A Woman In PRISON | Marci Simmons

Episode Date: March 19, 2023

Marci Simmons spent over a decade in a Texas State Women's Prison after stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars from her employer. Listen to find out how Marci makes it through her prison sentence and is able to create a life for herself that she never thought was possible. Connect with Marci Simmons:https://linktr.ee/marcimarie114 Connect with Ian Bick: https://www.ianbick.com/Subscribe to our membership program on YouTube to get early access to interviews, see behind the scenes photos & more:https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCRvVklIft6DMelVW18M0oBw/joinPowered by Q29 Productions, LLC Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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With Wealthfront, it could put money in, and it would automatically distribute it into a diversified portfolio. Then it starts to compound. The compounding compounds on the compounding. Just let it wrong, and it's great. Over 1 million clients trust Wealthfront. Get started at Wealthfront.com. Client was paid $1,000 for their testimonial, creating a conflict of interest. Outcomes vary. Investment management and advisory services provided by Wealthfront Advisors LLC and SEC registered investment advisor. Investing involves risk to principle regardless of the strategy used. Task performance does not guarantee future results. My name is Ian Bick, and you're tuned in to Lockton with Ian Bick.

On this week's episode, I interview Marcy Simmons, who spent over a decade in a Texas state prison after stealing nearly $200,000 from her employer. We all make mistakes, experience failure, and fall down in life. But if you decide to get back up and use it as fuel to your fire, you can choose to not let it define you. You can make it through to the other side and turn it into an opportunity. I went from owning a popular nightclub when I was 19 years old to becoming a federal inmate by the time I was 21.

Join me, Ian Bick, as I interview people from all over the country who have experienced the rock bottom of the American justice system. Marcy Simmons, welcome to Lockton with Ian Bick. Hey, hey, good to see you, Ian. Thanks for having me. I feel like you're like the mom of the prison TikTokers. When I first met you, like you're very family-oriented, vibey, bring everyone together. and you were one of like the best prison cooks on TikTok too. So happy to have you here today. Thanks for having me.

That's a big compliment. I was kind of a mom in prison too to a lot of people. So I take that as a compliment for sure. Awesome. I like to start at the beginning of everyone's story. How was your childhood like growing up? What was your family like? And where are you from?

Okay. So I'm from Fort Worth, Texas. And my parents, I grew up, they're pretty much hippies. Ian, my dad's a musician and I was just taught to love everybody and do the right thing. And I grew up in a lower middle class income family, suburbia, typical, typical American kid, I think. Did you ever get in any trouble growing up in high school? Never. I never gotten any trouble growing up. I didn't drink alcohol until I graduated high school. So you were like running a club, and that was not me.

So you're on the straight and arrow. Did you ever do drugs or no? Never. Wow. So do you go to college after high school? So I get pregnant. That's how that went. I did go to college.

I took some college classes. I did not get my degree. I had three babies and was married and divorced by the time I was your age, Ian. More than the average person. Very much. A lot of life. experience. So where are you working or where do you go and find work after your pregnancy? You have these kids. You have this family. Where do you end up? So actually after that divorce, there's a remarriage

in there and two more babies. And prior to that, I stayed home with my kids. After my second marriage, I started working in human resources. And I loved it. I loved working with people, helping people find jobs and get people hired on and trained, and that's where I got in trouble. So you're working at this human resources position, and you decide to commit a crime with this company? In a nutshell, I did decide to commit a crime, absolutely. Yeah, it's something that kind of built up, and it went downhill really fast. What was like the defining moment, and what exactly was? was the crime? So my charge on paper, the crime that I committed is a theft charge. It's theft over $200,000. Big money crime, right? And there was just a series of events with my employer. They were doing

some shenanigans, not necessarily illegal, but immoral, and were having me participate in that. I think that caused a loss of respect for them. And then also I had a little bit of self-entitlement. I felt a little bit entitled like I was overworked and doing a lot of things that I probably shouldn't be doing for them, and I felt like I needed compensated. So with those combined factors, I saw an opportunity, and I started taking money. And how would you take the money? I was kiding funds, which means like I was opening bank accounts using closed businesses. I was using their tax ID numbers and opening bank accounts, and I was kiding money from my employer's account to those accounts and making withdraws on that. How long are you doing this for? For about three

and a half years. Three and a half years? What would you say the total amount of money that you were able to take from them was? So the charge on paper, the audit showed 365,000. Now, I didn't have my hands on that much money. I did get charged with that amount because that's like all the outgoing transactions, but when you're kiting money, you're moving it back and forth. So I actually probably only had about half of that. What did you do with the money? I blew it. I blew it. We went on family vacations. We went, I spoiled my kids with things in that they didn't need, you know, they needed me. Their dad, my oldest kids, their dad was pretty successful at the time, and I felt a little bit like I was trying to keep up with him.

I bought a truck. And this is on top of your salary from them, too. Yes. What's going on in your head during this time? I mean, you were raised well. You never got into any trouble. And then all of a sudden, you're just like this full-blown, you know, criminal in a way. What's going on in your head?

Do you feel any regret during this time period? I felt a massive amount of regret. It was, I was enjoying spending the money. And there was definitely a natural high that came with taking that money. But, you know, I was having to lie to everybody, you know. And I have a very close family. My parents, my grandparents, my brother were just very close-knit. And I was having to do almost like somebody that's maybe with substance abuse disorder

and in their addiction, how they kind of withdraw. I was withdrawing from my family, not seeing them, avoiding phone calls. there was an instance that we had a family dinner, and we would get together at my grandparents every other Sunday, and it was kind of a big thing. And my granddad, he says, I just want everybody to know how proud I am of Marcy. My granddaughter just is, she's doing so well at work,

and she's getting this promotion, and her bosses love her. And he was giving me all these accolades, and I was dying inside because those, they were empty. You know, he was, it was stolen money. It wasn't my earned income. It felt awful. I ruined my marriage, all of the lies that I had to tell. I feel like with each lie, it was like adding another brick in the wall in between everybody and me, including my kids. It makes it hard to have a peaceful existence and being the kind of mom that you can be when you have all that stuff going on inside you. And once you tell that first lie, it's kind of hard to,

retract unless you become completely clean by that point. Are people questioning where you're getting this money from at all, like your family or friends? They're like, they know you work a regular job. You can't be making too much money. But now all of a sudden you're this big baller in the family. All the time. They were questioning all the time. And I had excuse after excuse after excuse, oh, our business got a new client and my boss gave me a big bonus, or I would take my mom and grandmother and daughter, and even my ex-husband's wife went with us to the spa one time for this big spa retreat, and I lied and said my boss has paid for it, and it was paid with stolen money.

How do you eventually get caught? Ian, I finally got caught because, now I'm 44 years old, and my crime was committed when Wi-Fi was not easily accessible, right? It was still like a dial-up connection. How old were you? How old were you at the time? I was 30. Okay.

So, and I lived in the sticks. So our internet was not great, and there was this big ice storm that further hindered the ability for me to get online and manipulate the money in the account. So anytime that money is stagnant, it would throw up a red flag to the bank. And everything was closed.

I'm in Texas, Ian. when it ices or snows, the whole state shuts down. Schools are closed. Post office is closed. Everything is closed. And I need to get to the office so that I can get on their computer. And my husband didn't have a clue why I would need to go. And I'm trying to tell him, I'll just put the truck in four-wheel drive and I'll go.

And he's like, you're not going. And at that point, I mean, I'm glad that I didn't tell him because then he would be involved. you know, and I would never want to put him in that situation. But yeah, I couldn't tell him. So I stayed and that money was stagnant. It threw up a red flag. I was busted. So the employers found out about it right away?

The bank found out about it and they called my employers. It was a Friday, of course. And I had that feeling in my gut like it's up. Like this is, it's not going to carry the weekend without anybody seeing. and even with that you still have like that slight bit of hope but my boss called me and said hey just so you know we're having a big meeting Monday morning our big bosses are flying in and I thought yeah they're having a big meeting because of me like I knew I just knew and sure enough I went on to work like any other work day but in my heart I knew and when I walked into my office at work my boss was sitting in my chair at my desk and I was like Okay. What does he say? So when I walk into my office and my boss is there, he's got all of these papers in front of him. And he says, have a seat. I sit down and he pushes the papers towards me. He says, what's all this?

And it was documentation of bank transactions where I had been taking his money. And at that point, what can you say? You know, the intelligent criminal might have just shut their mouth. mouth, you know, but not me. It just felt too good for it to be over, honestly. And so I just told him, yeah, I've been doing this. And moments later, the detectives came in. I'm sure they were probably already there. That same day, you got arrested? That same day. Did you admit it right on the spot? Pretty much. I'm that girl. And don't let your people come from me, Ian, because I'm that girl that told on herself, I was already caught. It's not like I could have been proven not guilty. I was caught, red-handed. But I'm that girl that went with the detectives and sat in that little

room and told him, no attorney. Big mistake. Big mistake. I really regret, not because I felt I was innocent, but I feel like it would have helped my sentencing. Yeah, I just spilled it. And it was a relief, honestly. As scared as I was, as I was. at the consequences, I also felt a relief. Because there's no more lies. Exactly. What's your family's reaction when they find out you got arrested? My mom tells me now that she knew something was wrong, but I feel like they were all shocked.

They were all shocked. I did ask the detective, can I call my husband at the time? We have kids, and I had to make sure all of the arrangements had been made for their child care and big picked up from school and all of that and when I called him he said Marcy did you have a traffic ticket you forgot to tell me about and I said no it's bad it's really bad and he said well did you get the car accident and I said no it's bad he said well what are they saying and I said at that time it was theft over 100,000 and he just said oh my God like he he just honestly didn't know.

He knew something was going on with me because of our marriage. My husband knew that something was up with me. He never dreamed I was stealing. He never dreamed I was committing a crime. What happens next? Do you get bail or bond after you're arrested? I did. So I had a $100,000 bond,

and my husband went to a bail's bondsman, and he and my grandmother split that fee. My grandmother put up $5 grand to get me out. He put up $5,000 to get me out. So I was home. At that time, I was able to talk to him pretty openly about my charges and what I had been doing. My kids were, I had three kids in middle school and two in diapers. At that time, I still was thinking I might get probation.

Like, I didn't really feel like prison was in my future. Did the lawyer tell you how much time you were facing? So I didn't have a lawyer yet at that time. Oh, wow. Yeah. Like, I was really naive. I really handled it. So you're handling this whole criminal case by yourself? Well, it hadn't really gone anywhere yet. Like it wasn't a court date yet. It wasn't, it was just fresh. But what happened, Ian, was really crummy. So we paid this 10 grand for me to get out, and it's literally out of my grandmother's bank account and my husband's family's account, right? And two weeks

later, they complete the audit. So they changed my charge from theft over 100,000 to theft over 200,000. And guess what? It's a new bond. They don't just carry that over. And they arrest me. They come to the house. And my kids were there. You know, it was really crummy. I'm fortunate that it was a small town, so it's not like, I mean, it was kind of small town sheriff's department. and it's not like they were handcuffing me, roughing me up in front of my family, but it just was a horrible feeling. And you don't come home after that? I don't come home until over a decade later.

What are people saying around town since it's a small town? What was that like? It was rough. It was rough on the kids. It was rough on my husband. I mean, I lived in a town at that time that didn't have a stoplight. So literally everybody knew. everybody and every uh fortunately my husband had good relationships with people there and i think that

they were sympathetic to him and they were kind to him that must have been hard on him though it was horrible i'm sure it was horrible he didn't express that how bad it was i think uh for my own feelings right yeah so you get arrested again a second time you're brought you don't get bail this time around what happens, how long between that arrest and you getting sentenced to prison. So I'm in county jail with all these girls like, oh, girl, you have never been in trouble. You are not going to prison. You're fixing to get 10 years probation. And I mean, and I'm, and I'm feeling it. I'm feeling confident. And a month or six weeks later, I go to my first court date and my attorney, I finally have an attorney, a real attorney. My husband had a

Acquired one, a paid attorney. And I go and the DA has offered a 40 year. 40 years. This man, yes, they offered me 40 years and wanted me to sign for 40 years of my life. There's a couple reasons. So small town, Texas, money is a priority. The owner of my company's son golfs with the DA. It was that kind of good old boy.

system and I suffered from that for sure. I knew then I was not getting probation, right? I knew. I didn't sign for the 40. Eight months later, I finally signed for 20 after eight months of negotiating. At 30 years old, you signed for a 20-year prison sentence. You had never been to prison before, and you just, you signed for that. I did, and I did sign for a 20-year sentence. What's going through your mind? So when I signed for that paper, my attorney pulls up, in Texas, the way that they do parole is, so at five years, if you're sentenced to five years, at eight months you see parole. You know, at 20 years, you see parole at 28 months. Well, I could wrap my mind around 28 months. So my attorney pulls his laptop out and he pulls this chart out and he's like, look, this is how it goes. Just if you take this 20, the deal is they were threatening to bring charges on my husband.

I knew that they wouldn't stick, but I could not imagine the imagery of him getting arrested. Where would the girls go that moment? Like, I just, I was scared, you know. And then I'm looking at this chart, and he's telling me, Marcy, everybody who behaves in prison, they go home on parole. you get in there, don't get in trouble, 28 months. Well, 28 months, I'm going to see my girls go to kindergarten. I'm not going to miss my oldest son's graduation. I'm not going to miss my oldest daughter's prom.

These are the things going through my mind. I can do that. You know, I did the crime. I can wrap my mind around 28 months. So what happens next? You sign the deal for 20 years, how much time passes between that and your sentencing after you take the deal? I they sentenced me that day that you signed the deal I signed the deal you go to court out to the courtroom and the judge this is really a small town yeah so what's going on your mind the day of sentencing then after you sign this deal

well the dread of getting back to the county jail and telling my family that I had signed for that time they didn't know about it no you didn't consult them or anything no my dad was really upset that I did not consult him about signing for 20 years my dad was devastated. Do you think had you held out a little bit longer, you could have got offered a better deal? That's tricky because it had been, like it was 40 years, and then it was 30, and then it was 25, and then it was 20.

So you feel like you were getting a good deal? And it was 20 consistently for like three trips, and then they're starting to talk about arresting my husband. And, yeah, I feel like if I had had a better attorney, an attorney that was not so in cahoots. I got a, yes, a paid attorney, but he was a small town attorney from the small town I was being prosecuted in. He was their buddies.

And they wanted to. Everyone knows everyone. Absolutely. So what does the judge end up sentencing you to, the full 20 years? Yes, the full 20 years. What's going on your mind when you hear that Marcy Simmons is going to be sentenced to 20 years in a Texas state prison? I was still naive enough.

that when the judge did say 20 years, I thought, parole, I'm going to be home in a little over two and a half. And that didn't happen? Absolutely not. Do you think that because you were a woman played into the part of getting such a long sentence? In this scenario, I don't believe that women in general get higher sentences. Do you think it was because you were a woman that stole from a powerful figure? Absolutely. The fact that I was a woman stealing from a man of prominence with a lot of money in a small town, I believe my gender did play into the high sentencing. So how did it have been like a man stealing from a powerful figure? It wouldn't have been as bad.

I feel like a man would have gotten a lesser sentence than me. Absolutely. Wow. So you go to from the county to a woman state prison. What's that like? What's the atmosphere? it was kind of a new world for me. I did grow up in Fort Worth, and like I said, my parents are open-minded. I don't think I was, I never knew I was really sheltered until I got to prison, actually. So I hadn't been around so many different people with different backgrounds. I hadn't been around any kind of drug life. Yeah, it was a new world. I felt like I had to be around. move to another country. What kind of people are at the prison? It's just very diverse, right? So you have people, y'all, Ian, your people are going to come from me

about this like urban, like urban speech. I had to learn. I feel like I had to learn some form of a new language. And they kind of would tease me. People in prison would tease me about speaking properly. they would tease me about sitting up straight because my mom taught me good posture. Like that's just how I was raised. And it was just different than how they were raised.

And so, yeah, there was that. But it also, it opened my eyes to so many different, like, demographics, even in my own state, even in my own city, how different people grow up, even like within 30 miles of me. What's the dormitory setting like? Are you guys in cells or are you in dorms? How is that? So right off the jump, my first housing assignment was in an open dorm. So it's bunk beds in an open dorm. And it's kind of, it's, it's, there are dividing walls like like Orange is the New Black has that dividing wall with like four or I think it's two in there, but it was four for us. And so that's how my first housing was. On the topic of that is the prison like Orange is the New Black overall.

maybe the sleeping arrangements are like it but is the atmosphere like it so the one thing that um i love about oranges the new black how they got it right was the women's interactions with each other as far as like um bonding forming kind of pseudo families um i i just love how they kind of showed how even in those kind of circumstances women in prison they come together they help each other other. Now, Orange is the Black, it was a federal prison, and I think Texas prisons are a lot different. My first year, I was locked up, that book, people were reading that book. It had just been out not very long, and I had my grandmother send it to me. And I remember reading it, and I was pissed at Piper, frankly, because she was complaining about things that we did not have. Like, they're

talking about manicure sets on commissary and microwaves and washer and dryer and we did not have any of that. Yeah, I read Orange is the New Black too while I was in prison when I was in the shoe actually. So that was pretty funny. What was the hardest thing to adjust to coming from someone that had never been to prison, never committed crime up until this instance? What was the hardest thing? It was, that's a tough question asking what the hardest thing was when I first got to prison because at that point, I was still just grieving over being away from mine. Yamava Resort and Casino at San Manuel is California's number one entertainment destination

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Book it with Priceline. Download the Priceline app or visit Priceline.com. Act. They vary. Limited time offer. My family and kids, everything in there was hard, you know, adjusting to people not taking your word. When you're out here in the free world and you say something, it's people's instinct to believe you. And when you're in there and you're in your, you know, in Texas we wear whites. And then when you're in your white prison uniform and you say something, it's first not believed.

and you have to prove yourself. That took a lot of getting used to the way the officers speak to us. That took a lot of getting used to. I lived a life that nobody talked ugly to me out there, you know, and getting talked down to being treated like less of a person. What were the officers, or how were they treating you guys in prison? Was it different because you were a woman and they were a male too? was a dynamic?

So the staffing in all of the prisons that I was in were pretty diverse as far as race, gender, just men and women of all types. But they just treated us, we were talked down to because we were inmates. I went to visit one time, and my mom was there visiting me, and at visitation, the officer came in and said,

count time, B-I-T-C-Hs? And my mom's eyes got huge, you know, and I had already been there a couple months, and it had already not phased me. I had already become accustomed to being spoken to like that. How'd that make you feel? I was embarrassed. I was embarrassed that I didn't care, like, that I was already used to it, and I was embarrassed that it happened in front of my mom.

Is there a lot of corruption with the guards? Oh, Ian, there's so much corruption with the officers. And let me start by saying I came across lots of good officers that did their job exactly like they were supposed to, that came to work, and they were well respected because they came in and respected us and expected us to follow the rules, you know. But I also dealt with guards that would get in inappropriate relationships with inmates This is male and female or female on female? Both, male and female.

And not necessarily sexual, maybe just friends, maybe just they start talking about free world stuff and home stuff. And then just like people do, they have some kind of falling out. They get angry about something. And now the guard has all the power and it's really easy. All they have to say is one lie on a piece of paper and it can change an inmate's entire stay in prison, right? what was that first visit like with your kids when they came to visit you?

So the first ones, the little girls didn't come. It was my older kids, my mom, and my, I want to say it was my grandmother. And my kids are in middle school, but my son, he was sitting in my lap. And he's a big kid, you know, he's a middle school guy. And he's sitting in my lap and we're eating out of some chips. and my daughter is here at the other chair, and she says, Mom, they made us take off our shoes when we got here. And I said, well, they want to make sure you don't bring anything in

that we're not supposed to have. And she looks at me like, with this crazy face, what would you possibly want out of a shoe? Like that idea disgusted her. And I said, well, you should hear what they made me do to come out here to visit y'all. you know and I said I had to take my clothes off and I had to spread my booty apart like it's serious and Tyler my son who's sitting in my lap and we're sharing this bag of chips and he's just eaten away and my mom says well but of course they let you wash your hands and I'm like no no they didn't and Tyler just looks back at me with this Dorito in his hand and he's like you touched your butt and you didn't wash your hands you know it was just a whole new culture for my whole family. I think the prison experience, it has taught my entire family so much about diversity, about addictions, mental illnesses, and it's just opened all of our

eyes. Yeah, I remember I used to like kind of dread going to visits because you always had to like feel very degraded. Like when you're in the unit average day in prison, you're never really handcuffed or in federal prison you're not really handcuffed you never have to strip unless you're going on a visit or moving to a different prison so when you'd get that visit like that's just like that's when it hits you and you're like wow you have to strip just to go see your relatives and friends and then when you come back you have to do the same thing and some guards are cool about it they do it fast or whatever but other guards could just be like real dicks about the whole thing so it's just a crazy surreal experience do you have a job in prison or do you have a prison home

hustle? I have a job. So in Texas, inmates are made to work unless for some reason they medically can't. And Ian, we get stripped going to and from work every day. So visiting at visitation was nothing compared to like working. My first job was working in the field squad. It's very much like plantation work. If you looked at how it looked for slaves working on plantations, that's how it looks for Texas inmates working in the fields. And we would strip going to work and we would strip coming in for lunch, strip going back out. And hot Texas weather? Yes. And how much are they paying you an hour and a day for this job? They were paying me zero dollars an hour, zero cents an hour, Ian. You'd get no money for your prison job. Texas inmates, Texas does not pay their inmates,

nothing zero. Wow. So how do you survive then in prison? Do you have to form like a hustle or is your family sending you money? I survived in prison a little bit of both. So I was fortunate that I do have a large family. And I mean, money's tough on everybody. So I would get like $25 here and $25 from grandmother, 25 from dad, you know. And I had everything I needed. But if I wanted more, I absolutely did hustle.

So I did a couple things. I used to cut people's hair with toenail clippers. and I got 10 soups for cutting hair in prison or $3, which I'd either get a bag of coffee or 10 noodles. Or I'd wash clothes. I washed clothes for people. I sewed. So they didn't sell sewing kits on commissary or needles, but they were brought in often by officers. That was something easy that if you had an officer that was a friend, they could bring in pretty easily.

and I think I bought my first needle for 30 flags or 30 stamps. And I charged people to alter their clothes or fix holes in their t-shirts, make booty socks, make boxer shorts. Now, eventually you learned to cook really well in prison too. Are you selling the food? What kind of food are you creating off a commissary items? Ian, I loved to cook in prison. It's cooking.

In the free world, cooking is an event that brings people together. And in prison, for me, it was in. event that brought us together. So I cooked a lot. I cooked, I mean, just the typical prison meals with ramen noodles or burritos, but we did a lot of crazy things like stuffed halapinos. I cooked with a blow dryer. I cooked made chicken balls, tuna balls, chicken wings, pizzas, hot pockets. Are you selling this stuff or this is just for fun building community with the girls? I never sold any food. Yeah, it just wasn't something that I, I, I, I, I, I could have, and there were girls that did that, sometimes if, like, I was low on commissary,

sometimes people would be like, hey, will you cook for us? You know, and I would get to eat with them. But no, I never sold it. It would just be kind of a thing like, hey, it's Sunday, what do y'all want to eat? And everybody would kind of make something. So I might make chicken balls and somebody else might make tater tots and kind of like that. That's awesome. What's the non-comissary food like, the food that the state prison says?

serving you guys. So the food is not great. And I always feel bad when I talk about the food in prison because my old kitchen boss, she is on my social media. And she always says, I did the best I could. And she did. But the budget for the food is not much. The meat is a meat mixture, you know.

And so it's like a beefish patty. We did get fresh chicken sometimes and not fresh. was frozen, but we did get like chicken legs sometimes, and that was a big treat if that happened. So, yeah, the food wasn't great. It was a lot of noodle casseroles. Beef mixture meat with noodles, but they would call it all different things on the menu. So the menu would look like it was like five different things, but actually it was just noodles and beef.

But they'd be like, oh, it's cheeseburger casserole. No, it's just noodles and beef. You know, it's the same thing. What about contraband a woman's state prison in Texas? What are women inmates wanting to get smuggled in? Aside from your typical drugs and maybe cell phones, is there anything that you wouldn't think would be contraband that they want? In the contraband in women's prisons,

you mentioned cell phones and drugs. There was not cell phones and there were very little drugs. There was sometimes pills. And I saw, I think, marijuana. a couple times. I never saw a cell phone. I never heard of anybody having a cell phone. The main contraband, if you could get it smuggled in, that would be the most value in there, was free world makeup. So they would want, like, eye shadow. Somebody could bring in an eye shadow, and we would break it down and put it in, like, sweet and low packets and sell it

that way. And that was a big hustle. Free World makeup. honestly that's the main thing that's it just the makeup wow yeah i'm just trying to think of what other random things like artwork stuff for art um and then they we do tattoos in there now did you get a prison tattoo i i have a prison tattoo you got a prison tattoo you got a prison tattoo wow it is so crazy you go from growing up involved in nothing you got a you know this 20 year prison sentence and you got a prison tattoo How long in your sentence were you that you got this tattoo? I was nine years in my sentence. Okay, so you made it almost to the halfway mark and...

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I actually had gotten my tattoo after I had already made parole. I knew I was coming home. And I've never even talked about it on any of my social media. That's so funny. But yeah, I have my girlfriend's name on me. So you got a girlfriend in prison? I had several girlfriends in prison.

And explain that. Like you had a... husband out on the street and you just decided to go after women in prison or how did that work? So, Ian, a lot of people ask me that very question about my sexuality because I had been married to two men prior to my incarceration. I've always been attracted to women. So it wasn't something like abnormal for me to be attracted to another woman in there. And so I had a few girlfriends during my entire incarceration. And I met my current girlfriend.

We live together. We have a life together. And we met in 2017 while we were incarcerated. That's amazing. That's like a good love story right there. So how does a relationship work in prison with another inmate? Are you guys doing date nights, movie nights? Like what happens?

What's your typical dynamic? Well, my girlfriend and I did not live together. So it was really a pen pal type relationship. We would get to see each other. The way it would work is, so there's one chow hall, right, and there's two, four, six, I mean, 10, 11, 14 different pods that are eating. And I would sit at chow time, I would sit where I could hear the radio, where the officers, so I would know which dorms are being called. and if her dorm had been called, I would get at the front of the Chowall line. And if her dorm hadn't been called yet, I would get at the back of the Chow Hall line.

And it was literally just so that we might could see each other from across the Chow Hall. It was that. It was a lot of passing notes, passing gifts, that kind of thing back and forth. A middle school type crush. Absolutely. Exactly like that. But you were labeled as girlfriend and girlfriend, essentially. Yes.

And we caught a lot of hell from office. because of that. And did you break it to your family while you were in prison? Yes, my parents knew, but... What about your husband? My husband and I's relationship was already over by that point. Okay. How is your family's reaction to you telling them you had a girlfriend that you met in prison?

So my parents are hippies. There was no different reaction than if I had said I got home and met this guy. It was just, oh, you know, Marcy's in a relationship. that was it. My girlfriend got out eight months before me, and so when I came home, I mean, even during that time, I would like be talking to her on the phone. She's in the free world. I'm in the prison, and she's texting with my kids for me and sending messages to my brother and that kind of thing. It was just no big deal. And you guys are still together to this day. We are, and she's incredible. That's awesome. Were you ever in the shoe at all?

I was. They have, so in Texas it's called admin. administrative segregation, right? It's ad seg. The unit that I was on, it was called, the shoe was called, or ad seg was called J2, because that's the building name. So when I first got to prison, they'll be like, oh, be careful, you'll go to J2 over that. And I'm like, what are you talking about? They're talking about SEG. Yeah. So the first time I ever went was over a hug. You went to the shoe for giving someone a hug. Yes. Yeah. She was sitting in her floor of her cubicle, and she had bad mail from home, and she was crying over her mail,

and I walked by and kind of half-stepped into her cubicle and hugged the top of her shoulders, and they saw me on camera. It felt like the SWAT team came for me, like the sergeants and ranking officers came. You just hear all these keys. I didn't know they were coming from me. We're all like, me and my bunkeys are like,

what's going on? We're all looking around, and they come for me, put me in handcuffs. How long were you in the shoe for? For that time, it was 34 days. Wow, just for giving someone a hug. Yes. That's wild.

Now, earlier you said you were expecting to get out at the 28-month mark, but not too long ago, we heard you saying you were getting a tattoo at year nine. When did you figure out you were not going home after 28 months? And what was that feeling for you? So I learned that I wasn't going to be going home on parole. I mean, I saw the parole the first time at 28 months. They gave me a one-year set off, which means they would see me. again in a year. And then I'm not not getting in any trouble and I'm a college student and I'm

taking all these correspondence classes. I have a vocational class. I'm doing everything I can to get home. No disciplinary cases. And the next year and the next year. And it was about the fourth or fifth no that I lost my shit in there, frankly. So yeah. And then I and then I went so far down that I couldn't have made parole. You're just getting into trouble. I'm just getting into trouble. making terrible decisions. I'm bucking the law. I'm fighting. I'm blatantly.

I mean, I'm just acting out. The officers there, they like to cross inmates out. They like to cross you out by saying that they feel threatened. And there was something going on in the dorm and the officer was doing some relief. I don't even remember what it was,

but it was something that I felt I needed to talk to the sergeant about. And we fall out to Chow and I go to the sergeant. And I said, ma'am, can I talk to you? And she said, she just didn't want to talk to me. And she says, I think I feel threatened. And I'm all drama queen. Get down on my knees in the middle of the main street while Chow's running. Put my hands on my head. Like, I'm sorry, ma'am, if you feel threatened. It was just that kind of attitude. And it made me a target for more cases. So it's kind of funny how you like

evolve into this person, like that these experiences in your life brought you into an environment that you never, ever expected yourself to be in, but you had to learn to adapt, and that made you who you are today. So eventually you do get out and you get paroled. What year is this and after how much time did you serve? So I made parole at the end of 2020, and I had served almost 10 years at that time, but my parole answer included a six-month prison program and then included a halfway house so then I didn't get home until March of 2023. It's almost my two-year mark. Congratulations. Thanks. How hard was it to reintegrate into society after serving 10 years in a woman's state prison in Texas? It was a little bit confusing going to Costco or Walmart was very overwhelming.

Smart phones. That was insane. Yeah, I actually, I had an iPhone. for when I left and it was brand new. Oh, there were iPhones back then. So that wasn't completely, like I was able to pick that up pretty quickly. It was a lot about meeting everyone's needs. That was different from me because when you're in prison from day to day, you have no control over anything in the free world. So yes, I'm a mom in prison, but no, I'm not taking phone calls from the school and

no, I'm not helping with homework, and no, I'm not trying to pay bills, and all of that. Like, it's a different set of stresses, right? How are your kids reacting to you being home? So they were initially elated, you know, very, very joyful to have me. And now, two years in, there are definitely mental illness damage, trauma damage, that they have experienced. because of me, right? And that's all kind of still coming up gradually and we're having to address things and it's a healing process and we're working on it. But there's lots of love there. Do you feel like a huge weight on your shoulders that you had to put them through that because of

your actions? Ian, there are days and I don't talk about it a lot, maybe a few videos. There are days. there are days that the guilt still eats me so bad that I don't get out of bed. Like I, that guilt that you, your actions affected somebody negatively, somebody that you love with your whole life in the way that my actions did. Yeah, it's a rough, it's a rough go of things, but we're all still working on it. And you do end up getting out of bed and you keep going. what gives you that energy to get yourself out of bed in those dark times? So there's a lot of things that keep me going.

And I want to be, I want for my kids to not, I don't want to die and my kids be like, yeah, my mom went to prison. I want to die and my kids be like, my mom made big changes because her experience in prison. Like my mom, she helped to get bills passed and make things better. and I want them to look at me like that. What do you end up doing for work after you get out? So my first job was Amazon. I worked there for a year and a half.

They hired felons. It's the first job I applied for. I got it. And it was good. But eventually you leave that? I was able to quit Amazon because I had a couple opportunities come to me as a result of social media. I started sharing my story online.

Why did you decide to get into social media? media. We'll start with that. So my parents, my dad's a musician. My dad and my brother are a musician. In Fort Worth, they're known. Everybody knows them. They have a big party. I've been home. It was in June. I got home in March. The party's in June. And there are hundreds of people there. And I'm up on the stage like, thank y'all for coming. It's my mom and dad's 40th anniversary. And my brother has a new EP out, like we're just celebrating all these things. And I'm saying things like, I'm just so glad to be home and be a part of it. And I look out and I see people question like, what is she talking about? Where has she been? Like, they don't know. And so I learned from that that my parents had not

openly told people I was in prison. They told their close friends. And so I'm like, Dad, what, what's up? You know, this feels really weird. And he's like, well, that's your story. We didn't know how you would feel when you got home. We didn't want to tell your story. And so I thought, all right. So I took, I made a TikTok and I showed my, my first prison content TikTok was me showing my mugshot. And I put it on my parents' Facebooks. So that's how, you know, I just wanted it to be like, I'm here. I went to prison. It doesn't have to be weird, you know. But you knew going into sharing your story that you had a positive mindset, you wanted to spread awareness. You weren't trying to get back into anything that you had done before.

Oh, yeah. Absolutely. I wasn't trying to get back into anything. When I started posting on social media, it was really with the mindset of, hey, people need to know that there are people that make very poor decisions. People mess up and make bad decisions every day. But it doesn't mean we're going to continue to do that. And it doesn't mean we have to hide like under, I shouldn't have to feel like I need to hide under a rock somewhere because I did this bad thing. And because of your authenticity and your truthfulness in these videos, they start to go viral.

And Rosie O'Donnell comes across your page. What happens? So she, Rosie O'Donnell sends me a private message on TikTok. And I'm like looking at her account, making sure it has like the little blue check mark. Like, is this really her? and she's like, we need to talk. You know, I really like your, I really like your channel. And I got to have a few conversations with her.

And that evolved into a production deal. That's amazing. That's like a really a good ending to like that whole ordeal and that whole story of what you went through and whatnot. So you've got this deal. What's going to happen next? Is it becoming like a TV show? So we're looking at a TV show. We're looking at like four seasons, and it's going to be about my life outside of prison.

It's Rosie O'Donnell, right? So you can expect there to be some humor in it and some lightheartedness. It's going to show interactions like me healing with my family, how it is getting a job, how all of that looks. And it's also going to have flashbacks of prison. It's going to show what a Texas prison looks like, and I think that people are going to be really surprised at the conditions. Do you think getting this TV deal has helped with your healing process for everything you went through? The crimes, not only the crimes you committed, but the 10 years you spent inside prison too? So I don't think that necessarily the TV deal has started to help me

with that so much as sharing my story, Ian. It's very therapeutic to have a community online that I can just I can just tell my story I encourage people even even if they don't post your video even if you don't if you make a video and never post it but if you make a video of your story and

watch it that's there's something healing in that now I know as a parent like my parents when I went to prison you know they're looked at a certain way for having like a son or a daughter in prison what's it like for you as a mom and like

your kids' perspective that they're maybe getting teased about or other moms are looking at you being the mom that went to prison? That's a great question. There is definitely a stigma around when you have a family member in prison. And definitely my kids felt that. I asked the question, because somebody on TikTok asked me, did your kids ever get teased? So I asked my older kids, did anybody ever tease you? And my daughter said, yeah, mom, that's the first thing that they want to throw up in your face when you get in an argument with somebody at least my mom's not in prison that kind of thing and kids are vicious yes kids are hurtful and mean um so that's that's for sure and those so my oldest three are grown now and they're open-minded and they don't experience any kind

of grip from that they more experience hey i saw your mom on tic-tok and that's kind of cool right so um but my two middle school girls it's still yeah it's still they're friends friends parents know I was locked up. I'm not trusted by them yet. I don't live in their community, so they're not seeing directly how I operate day to day. And there's definitely challenges with that. I can't volunteer at their school. They won't let me volunteer at their school. My, and my prior incarcerated life, I was a big school volunteer. I was at the school all the time with my kids. It's very different. Wow. Are there any relationships aside from your girlfriend that you've kept in touch with from prison? Any good friends you've met along the way?

I have met an entire community along the way. So just the ladies that I was locked up with, we definitely have a community online whenever, like if I go to Houston, they're going to be in Houston. When I go to Austin, we're all going to go to dinner. You know, there's definitely people across the state that we know that we keep in contact like social media wise. there's women that are still incarcerated that I talk to regularly. My very best friends still locked up. We talk almost every day, male back and forth. Yeah, there's definitely, and then beyond that,

this community of like social media, prison TikTokers or whatever you want to call them, people that get out of prison and share their story and get into advocacy work and want to make a difference. And I've found a wonderful community there as well. How different do you think your life would be now if you never jumped into social media, jumped into TikTok, you didn't have the courage to share your story with the world? I have such a joy from sharing my story. I'm just trying to think like my first year out when I wasn't sharing my story. It was still so the like navigating the world was still confusing.

I was spending all of my time with like trying to rebuild relationships with my family. so it's hard for me to say like it would be different than that. I feel like I wouldn't have, I wouldn't feel like I have a purpose. Like if I was here I am just going to work at Amazon every day, picking Amazon orders, it's not the kind of purpose that I feel that I have today. And on that note,

for the people that watch your videos, they're paying attention to your story, what is your message to them? What, like, what do you want to, what do you want the takeaway to be? from your story? I think it's important that everybody know that the people that go to prison,

most of them are broken long before they get to prison, that circumstances, I think someone that grows up like me doesn't realize what a difference, bad circumstances and being raised in different environments can affect, put you on the prison pipeline before you're even out of grade school. And so, and then I also want people to know that the people I was in prison with,

there, no matter what they're, if they were serving two life sentences on a murder charge or if they were serving two years on a possession, possession charge, I never came across anybody that was like, yeah, I'm glad. I'm glad I'm, I can't wait to get home and do that again, you know, and I would do it again if I had the chance. No, it's women that are broken and hurting and feeling. guilty and wanting to do right and wishing they could change things. Well said. I'm a big believer and everything happens for a reason and we're given these

individual stories and experiences that have the ability to not only change our lives but to change other people's lives and it's up to us that have these unique experiences to share them and put them out and be vulnerable with the world and you're definitely doing that. you know, really excited for when your TV show comes out and excited. Like, I always get excited when you pop up on my page because you're never in a bad mood on social media. You're like, hey, y'all. And I remember when I met you in Texas for the first time, you just, you exude so much energy

and positivity. And like I was saying before, you're that mom of the prison TikTokers. It's quite a title, quite an honor, you know. We got to find out who the dad of the prison TikTokers is. Maybe it's Jesse. I can see Jesse being it. But Marcy, thank you for coming on locked in today. It's been great talking with you, and I wish you the best with everything.

Thanks for having me, Ian. I really appreciate it. Good speaking with you, too. Awesome.