Locked In with Ian Bick - I Was in Prison With Mackenzie Shirilla — Here's What She Was Really Like | Kat Crowder

Episode Date: June 15, 2026

Kat Crowder grew up in Alabama with an alcoholic father and started getting into trouble as a teenager — eventually getting sent to a troubled teen program that was supposed to help but couldn't prepare her for what came next. When she got out her father took his own life. That loss derailed everything. In this episode of Locked In with Ian Bick, Kat tells the complete story — from her teenage years spiraling into identity theft check fraud and in and out of Tennessee jails to eventually catching a case in Ohio and spending nearly a year inside an Ohio state prison. But what makes her story completely unique right now is who she was locked up with. Kat was in Ohio prison with Mackenzie Shirilla — the subject of the viral Netflix crash documentary — and she went viral for sharing what Mackenzie was really like inside. The Netflix documentary got it wrong. Kat was there. This is the complete unfiltered truth. _____________________________________________ #MackenzieShirilla #OhioPrison #truecrimecommunity _____________________________________________ Thank You To CASH APP For Sponsoring This Episode: Download Cash App Today: https://click.cash.app/ui6m/6pao71et #CashAppPod Cash App is a financial services platform, not a bank. Banking services provided by Cash App’s bank partner(s). Prepaid debit cards issued by Sutton Bank, Member FDIC. Cash App Visa® Debit Flex Cards issued by Sutton Bank, Member FDIC, and The Bancorp Bank, N.A., pursuant to a license from Visa U.S.A. Inc. See terms and conditions for the Sutton prepaid card, Sutton debit flex card, and Bancorp debit flex card. Discounts and promotions provided by Cash App, a Block, Inc. brand. Visit cash.app/legal/podcast for full disclosures. _____________________________________________ Connect with Kat Crowder: TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@boujeebehindbars Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/boujeebehindbars/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@boujeebehindbars _____________________________________________ Hosted, Executive Produced & Edited By Ian Bick: https://www.instagram.com/ian_bick/?hl=en https://ianbick.com/ _____________________________________________ Timestamps: 00:00 She Was Locked Up With Mackenzie Shirilla — Kat's Complete Story 02:30 Her Struggles at Home and the Teenage Turmoil That Started Everything 05:30 The Rebellion the Troubled Teen Program and the Family Tragedy That Changed Everything 09:30 What the Troubled Teen Program Was Really Like From the Inside 12:00 Coming Home to Find Her Dad Gone — Grief and the Coping Mechanisms That Followed 16:20 College Substance Abuse and the Escalating Behavior That Nobody Could Stop 19:30 The Legal Troubles That Started the Criminal Justice Cycle She Couldn't Break 24:30 Probation Drug Court and the Setbacks That Kept Setting Her Back 28:20 The Criminal Lifestyle and the Consequences That Finally Caught Up With Her 32:00 The High Speed Chase and What Jail Really Felt Like for the First Time 36:00 Getting Pregnant in Jail and the Turning Point That Changed How She Saw Everything 41:00 Sentencing Day and What Heading to Ohio State Prison Actually Felt Like 45:00 Her First Impressions of Ohio State Prison and What Nobody Prepares You For 47:40 What Women's Prison Is Really Like — The Truth Nobody Talks About Publicly 50:30 The Prison Programs That Kept Her Out of Trouble and What She Learned From Them 53:00 Being Locked Up With Mackenzie Shirilla — What She Was Really Like Inside 57:00 Prison Hierarchy Gossip and How Perceptions of Mackenzie Shifted Inside 01:00:00 Contraband Relationships and the Everyday Challenges of Ohio State Prison 01:05:00 Prison Hustles and Pen Pals — The Underground World Nobody On the Outside Sees 01:09:00 Ohio Prison Food Commissary Life and the Halfway House Transition 01:15:00 Coming Home — Reuniting With Family and What Moving Forward Really Looked Like 01:19:00 Why She Finally Decided to Share Her Story Online and What Happened Next 01:22:00 The Lessons She Learned and the Reflections That Changed How She Sees Everything 01:25:00 Rebuilding Family Bonds and Her Advice to Anyone Who Needs to Hear It 01:26:30 Her Final Words and the Message She Wants to Leave With Everyone Watching _____________________________________________ To advertise on the show, contact [e-mail] or visit https://advertising.libsyn.com/LockedInWithIanBicka Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Are you one of those media strategy people clicking through slides, scrolling spreadsheets? Yes? Good. This is for you. Because on Spotify, there's an audience that's different. Locked in. Loyal, invested. They're called fans. Fans don't just listen to music. They feel seen by it, like it belongs to them. So when your brand shows up on Spotify, that's who you're talking to. And you're right next to artists like me, Lizzo. So, are you ready to talk to fans? Spotify Advertising. You're among fans. Hey y'all, it's Kelly Clarkson with Wayfair.

Ever order furniture online and wonder, what if? Like, what if it doesn't hold up? That sofa was four days old. You should have ordered from Wayfair. With Wayfair, there's no what if. Just style you love and quality you can trust. Visit Wayfair.cair, every style, every home. My guest today grew up in Alabama with an alcoholic father,

got sent to a troubled teen program, came home to find out her dad had taken his own life, and then spent years in and out of Tennessee jails, and eventually ended up in Ohio State prison. And while she was there, she was locked up with McKenzie Sherilla, the subject of the viral Netflix crash documentary. She went viral for sharing what McKenzie was really like inside, and the story is not what Netflix showed you. Her name is Kat Crowder, and this is her story. So I grew up in Birmingham, Alabama, actually.

I moved around a lot because my dad was in the radio industry. So I lived in Texas, Louisiana, but we always ended up back in Birmingham. What did he do for radio? So he was a program director and like a morning show host. That's kind of like in a weird way foreshadowing. I know. Rise on social media decades later. Yeah, I say that all the time.

He passed away. So I always say all that I was like, he'd be so proud. I mean, probably not on how it started because it's, you know, I had to go to prison and everything. But I mean, just the whole, he's all into it. He was always into it. And was your mom in the picture? Yeah. So my mom's always been around.

My parents were married. my whole life. But my dad, so radio was his personality, right? That's all he knew. And it's a dying industry. No one really listens to the radio in their car. So it got harder for him to get a new job. And then once you lose the job in one area, no one really wants to hire you back because you're already, you know, so you move. And then when it kind of came to an end, he like started getting really bad into alcoholism. Like he became a really bad alcoholic. And he had to start working in sales and I think he kind of lost his identity. And so with alcoholism comes depression and he ended up committing suicide when I was 17 years old. Oh, wow. So my mom, like she was always there,

but she struggled like emotionally. So it kind of made it harder, I guess. Like I took care, I felt like I was taking care of her a lot after that happened or taking care of my younger brother. What was your mom's career? So my mom's in marketing. She's, been in marketing my whole life. You cannot tell you what she does. I mean, I know where she works, but I cannot tell you what she's, like, actually doing. But she does really good at whatever it is. Now, before the decline of your father's job and what ultimately ended up happening to him, how was your upbringing as a family? It was definitely rocky. My mom struggled with things. You know, I'm going to, she's not comfortable with me, like, putting her information, her story out there yet.

But she struggled with things. And my dad also, like, was, he's very introverted, which is weird, right? Because he gets on the radio and he talks and he's very, but in reality, he was very to himself. So a lot of times, most of the time my grandparents had me and my brother. So it was very much like having two sets of parents. and it was just different, but we always grew up, like, in the suburbs. So nice house, nice school, but it was, like, don't look into the basement because there's secrets in there, you know, just very much different.

And I think that kind of made it hard for me because I was always trying to fit in, like, and seem normal. But when I would come home, I'm coming home to a very unstable household. Or I'm, like, having my grandparents come to pick me up at 2 o'clock in the morning. So it was just a little chaotic. What was young cat like? Up until about sophomore year of high school, I was pretty normal, I would say. I mean, whatever normal may be.

But I just like to hang out with friends. I was always pretty good at school. I managed to always get straight A's because I would get grounded if I made anything below a B. I would get grounded for the whole next quarter. So I was like, no, I don't want to be grounded, right? and I mean my family used to be like oh she's going to go to Harvard right she's so smart but around like when I started becoming a teenager that's when a lot of like my dad's drinking got really bad and I didn't want to be at home I hated being at home I didn't have much attention from my family because

they were dealing with their problems so I kind of would go and seek like validation from the worst possible people because I felt like the worst possible person. So I started smoking weed and sneaking out and hanging out with people that were way older than me. And we all know how that ends up. It just progressively leads to work. So I was getting sent. Like, I would get in trouble. I would go run away. But I always knew I was going to come back because I'm 15, 16 years old. I have no money. I just kind of want to be doing whatever I want to do with no. repercussions, the police would find me. And my first thing, I would be like, oh, God, I'm mental. I'm going to kill myself. Like, and that's awful to say. But I just knew that instead of dealing with,

like, the consequences for my parents, it would be easier to go to like a mental hospital or a rehab or something like that. So I went to a lot of programs. And when I was 16, I ended up running away to Florida with the five guys that were like at my school, my boyfriend at the time and a bunch of his friends. We had like $200, right? Thought all these hopes and aspirations that I was going to make a survive. We go to Florida. My mom's clearly freaking out. They're calling the police.

I threw my phone out the window so nobody could track me. And end up eventually going back home. And my family sent me to a wilderness treatment program, right? and it's shut down by the state now because it's child torture, like it's labor, child labor. And I was there for four months. And I was like this, I mean, I would pick going to jail or prison over that any day. It was absolutely terrible in the middle of Alabama, in the middle of summer, we're like hauling logs, whole trees with like four of us through the outside. It's just awful. So I graduated that program, but that's when I was actually there when my mom kicked my dad out.

It was like a week before I graduated. And that's when a week after I got out, they found his body. So he had relapsed. My mom kicked him out. And the police found his body like maybe five days after I graduated that program. So I went to this program to do all. all this work, right, to figure out what's wrong with me. Why I act this way, go through counseling, do all this vocational education, as they call it, just to get out to have the most, like, traumatizing

thing in my life happened to me. So I was like, oh, it's balls to the wall now, you know, I'm just going to do whatever I want. I don't want to feel like this. I don't, my own dad didn't love me enough to stick around. Well, then I definitely don't love myself. And I don't, you know, So it was just definitely downhill after that. Childhood was good up until like 14, 15. But then I was just crazy. Now, was that program bad because there was physical labor involved? Or do you think that they were actually, you know, like doing something wrong?

No, they were 100% doing something wrong. And I don't just say that because we've all seen like the documentaries or where they go into it. But it got shut down because they opened an investigation. and the entire program was advertised to be something that it wasn't. So it was called Elk River Treatment Program. It was in Elkmont, Alabama. And it was advertised to do it be like all this like equestrian therapy. And I thought we were going to be around a campfire talking about our problems when in reality it was a farm that did have horses that did have like land and all this stuff.

And basically we were just upkeeping the farm. and the horses for the people who lived there. So there was, they were barely any counseling. It was, I got so, like, doped up on psych meds

that I was like a walking zombie, right? So I'm on so many psych meds. I'm doing all, you wake up, you do PT at five o'clock in the morning. Okay, I cannot do one pushup if you paid me.

If you missed one rep, you had to start all the way over. I thought I was going to die. So you're doing that. You wake up, you do that. eat outside, you go and you instantly are either gravelling roads, hauling these trees, using a two-man saw, or just completely, it's just physical labor, cleaning the kitchen, right?

So it's nothing, it's like chores, but times 10. And we did group therapy once a week, right? And if you really want to get down to like the problem with somebody, you can't just give them 100 different psych meds and an hour out of the entire week and then just make them do physical labor and think they're going to change. If anything, it just made me have more of like a resentment. And my mom paid $9,000 to send me there. That's crazy. And it just did not do anything. Did your parents have that kind of money or was that a struggle? That was hard. It was hard for them. So I mean, I think because I'm a mother now and I look back at me and I look back at some of my friends' kids or like older friends.

like teenage daughters and I'm like they ask me they're like what should I do what should I and I'm like my mom and my dad did everything and I'm going to be honest nothing's going to work unless they want to do something different you know I've got sent everywhere and for me it took going to prison really getting pregnant and going to prison for me to change and I hope that's not the same for your kids but it's almost when you tell somebody who's in that mindset not to do something, it just makes them want to do. Okay, I have to tell you all about this sponsor because it's genuinely perfect for me specifically. If you've watched a show for any amount of time, you know everybody calls me Mcloven. I literally built my entire brand off being the Mcloven looking guy with the

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10 times more. Now that you're our mother, do you have regrets about how you maybe treated your parents or what you put them through? Oh my God, 100%. A 100%. Because not even that. So I have a 22-year-old brother and he's in the Navy. And he kind of, military, you know, lifestyle is drinking a lot all the time.

And I'm like, oh, my God, you're going to end up. You're all the way in California. Like, I'm so scared. Like, you need to stop. And I'm like, oh, my God. This is what I do. did to my mom all the time where I see these other mothers struggling with their teenage daughters. And I'm like, dude, I cannot believe I put my mom. She was already going through so much.

And I was just selfish. I feel so bad. But it's hard for me to say that to her. And I don't know why. I think it's like bringing it up again to her. But I do. I feel awful. And I pray to God that my daughter doesn't put me through the same because I do say your kids come back in tenfold. Now, what was your mindset coming out of the program but a few days before your dad passed away? So when I got out, my mom instantly told me like your dad's been missing. We'd have no idea where he's been. Normally, he would call at least. So we were just hoping that he checked himself into a rehab or something.

So my mind was not on this program. I was just happy to be out of it, but my mind was like, where's my dad? Like, this is weird. And it was Thanksgiving like two days later. And for him to not call or show up for Thanksgiving, was completely out of the ordinary. So I couldn't even focus on, like, my family, nobody was focused on, hey, I'm back.

You know, it's something that should have been, like, good and happy, but it was just like a dark cloud was over it because we knew something. Like, when you know, you know, we just knew something that's wrong. So now your dad passes. What happens next? So I end up going back, you know, we go through his funeral and everything.

I ended up going back to my high school that I originally went to. So I ended up going to alternative school before getting sent to that boot camp, right? So I had been gone from school for like an entire year, my actual high school. And this is my last semester of my high school. So it's my senior year. I end up going back. It's already like intimidating because everyone knows that I've been sent away. And now everyone's seen all over the news that my dad's body was found.

and now everyone's acting weird. And I'm like, I just want you to treat me normal, please. Like, this is just weird. But I instantly, I think me, everyone grieves so differently. I ran from it, I mean, for years in a lot of ways. So not just, like, physically would go and end up somewhere else. And I would, you know, get high or get, like, super drunk or surround myself with men that had not good intentions or just anything to distract myself. from actually, like, focusing and sitting, like, with the fact that that happened, while my mom,

in the other hand wanted to, like, look at pictures, like, pull out old photos. And I'm like, I don't want to look at that because I'll never get another photo like that ever again. And my brother just didn't talk about it. So that kind of caused, like, issues within our relationship because my mom's like, what's wrong? Like, something's wrong with you. You don't want to, like, process this. And my brother's like just thinks I'm nuts right so the next few years I just started doing whatever I wanted to do I think I had like deep down resentments towards my mother because in my head I'm like well if you wouldn't have kicked him out which I know she did it because he was like driving around drunk with us and I know she was just looking out and she was tired you know of him putting her through

the constant cycle but I think maybe that's why I didn't really care what I did so I wouldn't want to be at home because I wouldn't want to sit with it. So I would go, I graduated high school, right? I ended up going to college. Terrible. I was not ready. I went four hours away. I got a scholarship. I tried. I did the whole sorority thing. Got kicked out of the sorority because I partied way too hard. I was on the table with like liquor bottles in my letters, not allowed. So very quickly, my mom and my grandma come up there and they tell me that like I'm like doing all cocaine and like drinking and just acting not going to class a day ever so my mom texted me and she was like me and nana are going to come up and take you out to lunch and I'm like okay they come up

there they don't take me to lunch they take me to the hospital and I was like in a psychosis almost they were like either you're going to voluntarily go to this and check yourself in and pull yourself out of college or we're going to like get a judge to order it and have you committed and I'm like all I was doing was partying. Like, you know, in my mind, I'm like, y'all are so ridiculous. So I end up getting pulled out of college and moving back to Birmingham. And I didn't really know what to do. All my friends were in school.

My mom was working. I'm just, like, working in a restaurant. And my mom decides to move to Tennessee. So she's originally from Tennessee. My brother was about to go into high school. She wanted to do it before he started high school. She wanted to get away from all the bad memories. So they moved there first and I was going to stay in Birmingham.

Well, that didn't work out because there's nothing in Birmingham to do but get in trouble. So I end up going to Nashville and I meet a boy. And I'm like, no, I'm in love. And he's like rolling Molly and he thinks he's a rapper. and all this stuff. And I'm like, yeah, this is exactly where I need to be. This is great. So progressively, I started getting in trouble. I had never gotten arrested at this point up until we went back to Birmingham to visit my grandparents for Thanksgiving. And I reconnected with some of my friends. And I was like, I'm not going home. I'm not going back to Tennessee.

Like, there's nothing there. So I'm partying. My mom had given me her old car. and they end up going back. She's like begging me to come home. She's freaking out. I'm going, like, going to Panama City. I'm traveling on. And this car that's in my mom's name, right? So they keep threatening me. They say, if you do not come home, we're reporting your car stolen. And I'm like, they're bluffing, right? I'm in Tuscaloosa. I'm leaving a party. It's like six in the morning. I pull up into a gas station. I get a coffee. And as I'm walking out, they, like, swore me. And I'm like, oh my God, they're treating me like I just shot somebody. And they're like, Mary Catherine Crowder, you're going to jail, stolen car. And I'm like, this is my car. Like, what are you talking about? Anyway, go to jail in Tuscaloosa. They end up dismissing it or, like, dropping it to a lower charge because it, my mom's like, it is.

My car just wanted her off the streets. Then I have to get extradited. My first time ever in jail to Tennessee, because that's where it was reported stolen, and they dismissed it, I get out. And I'm like, oh, my God, I just spent a month and a half in jail for my own car. You would think that somebody would be like, oh, yeah, I got to tell my family's not playing, but no. So this was just an ongoing thing. And I feel like once you get in the system, it's really easy to get, like, sucked in to where it's hard to get out.

Why do you think that wasn't a wake-up call for you? Because I hadn't, like, actually sat and dealt with any of the things that I went through. And I made friends in jail terrible. Like I'm not saying that you can't like meet people in jail that get their life together. But I made friends with the people that did not want to change. So now I'm like getting out and these other people are getting out. And I'm like, hey, what are you doing? So now they're showing me and telling me more things that are like, you can get money like this.

Oh, pull up. Let's do this. Let me show you how to flip this pack or do this. And I'm like, this is exciting to me. It's another way to fill the void that I have not dealt with. So I would say that's definitely why. Because it was, like, exciting to me almost in a backwards way. What were you going to college for?

Psychology. Okay. You were passionate about that, or? So I really wanted to work with adolescents, like teenagers. And I think that's because I knew that I was, like, a fucked up teenager. And, um... But you have to, like, work on yourself before you can try to give advice to somebody else. So it is something I really wanted to do, but I did not, like, school.

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Sutton Debit Flex card, and Bancorp Debit Flex card. Discounts and promotions provided by Cash app, a Block Incorporated brand, visitcash.com.com slash legal slash podcast for full disclosures. So now you get out of the jail. after a month and a half, what happens? And how old are you at this point? Oh, God. I'm like 18.

So I'm still with that boy, right? I don't know why he stayed with me because I just left him. When I went to Alabama, he was back in Tennessee and it was just whatever. But I end up going back with him. I'm living at home, trying to find a job. And we start living really recklessly. And I did something awful. and I took like a checkbook from my mom.

Like I didn't learn the first time that she'll put me in jail. And I wrote a bunch of checks from my mom's checkbook, knowing that she was struggling financially. Like I just, when I say like I just gave no whatever, I just didn't care about anything. I didn't care about myself. I didn't care about anyone else. So I just wrote all those checks.

Well, my mom, she didn't want to put me in jail because she's like, clearly this did not do anything but make things worse. but she called the bank and they were like if you want your money back you you've got to press charges and so that's when I got like indicted for the first time and I ended up getting arrested well I got pulled over I had a gram of weed they ran my name they told me to jail at this point they'd met me before right because I'd been in there when I got extradited so I end up staying in there My family's like I'm not bonding you out, but I'll pay for you a lawyer. I know we put you in here and you did this, but we'll still pay for you a lawyer because we don't want you to be a felon.

And so they do that. I'm in there for like four months, right? And it's awful. I'm like, oh, God, I cannot do this. I'm like, actually in here. I can't get out. They're not like budging. I'm in big court.

They end up working out a deal where I get four 11-29 probation, which are like misdemeanor probation. but they're ran, they're stacked. So it's like four years of probation. But I had to do drug court. And I don't know if you know what drug court is, but in Tennessee, it's like really meant for people who are like, it's like drug court or prison. Like you're going to drug court or you're going to prison. And I ended up going getting that. So I had to live like in the drug court house, which was just like a regular house, but the cops will like randomly check to see if you're in curfew and you have to drug test like three times a week. You have to work a job. It's just a lot. It's groups. And at this point, I still was like, okay, I'm going to do this. My family. I'm trying to make amends with

my family. But then I just used to get a really bad case of the fuckets. I don't know if I can say that. Yeah, you can say. Okay. So I used to get like a really bad case of the fuckets where I would be like, okay, I don't like this. I'm done. I'm over. I'm not even going to try. Catch me if you can. So that started, so I just left. I left the drug court. They were begging me. So they're very much like rehabilitation before incarceration. And so they were very, like gave me a lot of time to like come back.

And because it's like a known thing. If you violate, if you get kicked out of drug court, you're doing your time. You're not getting a second chance. That was your second chance. And they were like, we'll come back. We'll work on it. We'll start you over. You'll get sanctioned, whatever.

And I was like, no, whatever. I'm done. So I hadn't learned. I'm running around, doing drugs, drinking, same-all, same-all. And I had taken Xanax one night and blacked out and I woke up at a dorm. Somebody's dorm in Murphysboro, Tennessee with a checkbook and I had cashed like four checks. Whose checks? So I had gone to a party the night before and it was the, the son's mom's checks, right? Don't remember even going into the bank. Don't do Xanax. It's awful. It's bad.

And I'm like, oh, yeah, this is bad. This is really, really bad. Anyway, so mind you, I still have those drug court warrants out. And I'm like, okay, still living my life. I'm like, they're not going to, maybe she won't press charges. I end up getting. arrested for the warrant. I don't even, it's happened so much. I don't even remember how they got me that time. I end up having to do like 10 months in county jail that time. They took all, instead of making me serve, because I could have served four years in county jail if they would have put it in effect, but they let me serve it all concurrently. So I did 10 months, was in the whole like every other month because I just was immature and I was so used to be.

being in there at this point that I knew people. I had like made friends that were like fighting murder cases that were had been there for like three years and I'm like I'm back like that is not the CEOs knew me. So I'm like okay I'm going to get out do this time. I will have no probation. I will be done. I won't have to go back. I go to get out. They had indicted me on that on those checks for like identity theft, forgery theft and that was in Nashville. So here I am getting extradited to Nashville now, which I mean, it's like 20 minutes, but they're taking me to Nashville. And my bond was like $5.00, so I bond out. I had a guy bond me out that I knew was up to no good.

You would think that I had learned. I don't know. I don't know why I was so hardheaded. And instantly just start run around with him. Leave him go back to the ex-boyfriend. I'm sorry. This is all over the place. go back to the ex-boyfriend from the past, right?

He's got an apartment. I'm like, this is really great. This is awesome. He goes to jail for probation violation. I meet these people through a girl that I met in jail, and they are very, like, heavily gang-related, right? And I'm like, that's awesome. This is so cool.

Like, I feel like I'm in GTA. Like, this is the lot. Like, just stupid. But in reality, I just, like, hated myself inside and I thought that this was the type of life like I was like I deserved. So I end up a bunch of stuff happened. They're like, let's go to Detroit. And I'm like, yeah, Detroit, awesome. I'm not going to drive this car because I know that this car is stolen. I know that there's guns in this car. I know that there's drugs in this car. But I'll go with y'all. It's a free trip. Why not?

So they start driving from Nashville. We get all the way to right before Toledo, Ohio. And they're like, we're so tired. Will you please drive? We're exhausted. We made it this far. We've driven eight hours, no issues. And I'm like, fine.

We're almost there. We're an hour away from Detroit. I get behind the steering wheel. And before I can even pull out, there's like five cops behind me. And I'm like, what do I do? You know, I don't know where I am. I know that I'm not going down for all of this stuff in the car. And I don't know if y'all will take y'all's charges.

And so I just keep going, like a dumbass. Mind you, this is like a 2001 Toyota Corolla also, and this is in like 2020. And I just keep going. It's really, really, really hard to go on a high-speed chase, like in general, but really hard when you don't know where you're at. So I just stayed on the interstate for four counties through two states. I went through Ohio and Michigan. The tire popped in Detroit on the interstate and I spun out and I wrecked.

And they came to the car with like the AK-40s, the big guns and everything. And I was like, oh, my God. Nobody got hurt, thank God. And it was just like a fever dream. We all went to jail in Detroit. Right? So that was very humbling because I'm like, Nashville Gios, I'm like, I can do that, right? But Detroit, like T. Grizzly Detroit, I don't think that I'm like cut out for this. But that was actually one of the better jails.

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Twizzlers keep the fun going. Yeah, I know. I just stopped whatever you were listening to to tell you that Twizzlers keep the fun going. Well, irony isn't my forte, but twisty, chewy, yummy Twizzler sure is. So think of Twizzlers as a little pallet cleanser for whatever's queued up,

which, by the way, should be coming very soon. Like any second now. Okay, Twizzlers, time to keep the fun going. Been in, believe it or not. I was there for 30 days. Detroit really doesn't care about. That's small to them. So they ended up dismissing it because they told me that Ohio, where it started,

I guess they had purchase. They were pursuing charges, but they hadn't yet, right? So they let me out. Naturally, you would think at this point somebody would be like, okay, you know what? I'm going to slow my role. I'm going to chill out. Not me. But I was like, you know, I know that I've never gone to court before and that's been bad.

So I'm going to make sure I go to court. So I was going to court for the Detroit thing before it got dismissed. And then I met someone bullshitting with my life still. We go down to Florida. we're on vacation, we get pulled over for a traffic stop. And me, in the past, I'd been like, fake name, fake birthday. I'm good. But I'm like, I don't have any warrants. Everything's working out. I'm still going to court for the identity theft in Nashville, right? And they're like, you have to go to Ohio for, you got indicted in Ohio. And I'm like, Ohio. I couldn't even,

like, register. I'm like, I've never been to Ohio. I've never even stepped foot in Ohio. Because I hadn't like I just was passing through they're like no yeah no it's you they like I kept trying to tell them five different ways it's not me it's got to be someone else they take me to jail in florida that was the worst jail I've ever been in there was mold like falling off of the ceilings it was decrepit I'm there for 30 days they take me the Ohio comes to pick me up on the last day that they have to pick me up I get a Ohio they that was a seven-day transport that was the worst experience ever on like a jail cell on wheels. We get there. My bond is $50,000. It takes me like a month to get somebody to work out the money to bond me out because it's $5,000. I end up

pleading out. So I was so used to the court system in Tennessee where it's like a plea deal there is like if you plead guilty to this, you'll get probation. So it's different up there. You go to sentencing hearings. And she was like, it was the same day that I made my bond, she was like, we're going to, my public pretender was like, we're going to dismiss the felony five if you plead out to the felony three. And in my head, I'm like, okay, so she wouldn't be telling me this. I'm not going to get probation or something, right? That sounds fine. Let's do it. I'm getting out still, right? Because I bonded out. She's like, yeah. So I'm like, yeah, just do it so I can get back to the jail and get out. So that's what I do, not knowing really what I'm doing. And the,

So I plead out to the felony three, which is fleeing and alluding. There, it's called failure to comply with police, ignore, officer. And I bond out. The next year of my life was, like, pivotal because they knew, so they knew that I lived in Tennessee during my bond hearing. And they knew I was going to go back home. I thought that they knew I was going to go back home. Because I had to request to get the ankle monitor, because I had a GPS, like, ankle monitor. required for me to bond out. So my attorney had to get it like taken off of my bond so I could go back

home. A month later, I'm looking at the court docket to see what time, like what day I need to leave to go back and everything. They had revoked my bond for leaving the state. And I'm like, but y'all knew that I was not from here. So at that point, I'm like, I'm definitely not going now because they're going to put me in due. So here I am, warrants, felony warrants in Ohio. And I'm just still living my life. You can't really get a job. Well, I mean, you could, I feel like, but I was too nervous. I didn't really want to. I met my daughter's dad. I got pregnant all while having warrants. And at that point, when I found out that I was pregnant, it was like a no-brainer for me. I was like, okay, yeah, I have to stop the bullshit. I'm like, this has given me.

like purpose. This is, you know, it's the worst possible time. I mean, I know that I'm going to jail. At that point, I didn't know I was going to prison, but I know that I'm going to jail. So I have to get like my life together, but I'm going to have this baby. My family was like, where, when can we take you to the abortion clinic? Like, this is not going to work. We're not going to raise your child when you get arrested. They had it in their mind that I was going to go to prison for 10 years. And I was like, no, I'm not doing that. It's not going to be that serious. I probably won't even go to prison.

It'll just be like probation. So, boom, my daughter's born in December, right? I've been doing everything right to the best that I can. She's born in December, February 3rd of 2023. So she's six weeks old. It was the first time I had been out of my house since I had my daughter. daughter. Me and my daughter's dad were downtown Nashville, and I get swarmed by like 15 bounty hunters. And I'm like, oh, yeah, it's time. So I'm like instantly in tears, right? I'm postpartum on top of

everything else. And I knew that so the identity theft since I had skipped court in Ohio, I was like, well, I can't go to court in Nashville for the identity theft stuff because they're going to take me to jail for Ohio. So I had warrants out for that. They take me, I'm crying, they're like, it's fine, you can just get someone else to go on your bond. And I'm like, but no, I know I have to go to Ohio. So I get there, they book me in. As they're booking me in, they tell me that I have, I'm being booked in for aggravated burglary, theft over $10,000 under $60,000, burglary of a motor vehicle and another theft charge. And I'm like me. I was like, no, you have it, you've got it backwards. This is supposed to be for identity theft. Failure to appear. Fugitive for Ohio.

Not aggravated burglary. Like when you say aggravated anything, you're like, I'm like, I am not a violent person. I may like have committed some crimes, but I've never heard anybody. And so I'm like bawling. I'm telling them. I'm like, tell me what you're talking about. So they read the affidavit and I'm like, it starts to click. And that, oh, God, I have not even talked about this at all. In my, the life that I was living, we'll call it that, I, a lot of times used, like, the way that I looked or the fact that I was a girl or whatever to, like, benefit. it. So I would have, like, what you would call, I guess, sugar daddies. That's awful. God, forgive me. Mom, I'm sorry. But, so I had met one. And right, he had come and given me, he'd, like,

send me money multiple times. But one thing I was, like, not going to do was have sex with these people. I was like, I can't bring myself to do that. I will talk a good game. I will, you know, go out to eat with you, but I'm not. I just can't do it. I'm scared. So he came into, town. This is somebody I'd already met before. He had been sending me like Zell. So that was a big factor in my case on that. He got very pushy, right? And I was like, I'm not comfortable doing that. I was supposed to stay the weekend. It was me and my other friend that were there. We were going to stay the weekend at the hotel. He was there for work. We were going to go shopping. And he got really pushy. And I was like, I'm leaving because this is not, like, I don't feel comfortable. You're not going to

make me do something that I don't feel comfortable doing. Whatever. So I leave. This was like a year before I went to jail. It was before I found out I was pregnant. So when I get, I'm getting booked in. They're telling me that he called the police the next day and told them that I sold $20,000 in cash from him out of his truck that I'd never even been in, right? And in the state of Tennessee, right?

We all say it's supposed to be innocent till proven guilty. It's not. It's guilty to a proven innocent. He showed up to court and they instantly bounded over. So I got indicted on it. And I'm like, even the judge when he was like on the stand telling them the dynamic of how like we knew each other. And so the judge is looking at him like, really? I mean, come on now.

Anyway, so it took me 18 months to fight that case. And it ended up getting dismissed. It was my lawyer wanted me to take it to trial. And I was like, I'm not doing that. I just want you to, if you can get me probation, I'm fine. But I cannot sit and wait for a trial date. I cannot risk getting hit with, like, the max. Because I know Nashville, and Nashville is way more lenient.

And Nashville courts also can take, like, up to seven years for you to go back and forth because they're so behind. And I'm already missing out, like, on everything with my child. I'm having to hear, like, her first words through, a jail phone call. I'm having to watch a video of her on a jail tablet of her first steps. So get me probation. I don't care. So they end up dismissing the aggravated burglary, dismissing the theft charge. I end up pleading to the smallest one, which is the burglary of a motor vehicle, even though they dusted the car for fingerprints. There was none of my fingerprints were on the car.

There was no camera footage of me going out the car. But I was like, if that's what it takes to get me out or to my next location, then that's fine. I don't even care. So I end up pleading that the identity theft stuck from those checks. I get probation for that. I get extra ride to Ohio, right, after I'm done with that case. And I just know at this point, I was like, I'm about to go into this sentencing hearing and cry and tell them how long I've already been locked up and tell him about my kid, and he's going to let me, he's going to give me probation,

and he's going to run it concurrent. I just know he is. No. He looked me in my face and said, I didn't go to court. The DA said that, I put the entire state of Ohio at risk with that high-speed chase,

which I did put a lot of people at risk. I understand that. I'm not taking anything away from that. And he said that I was not amenable. for probation and they sentenced me to 18 months in Ohio reformatory for women with no jail credit from the time that I'd already been locked up because I was like the whole reason I was in there in Nashville was because I couldn't bond out because I had a $300,000 bond for Ohio's fugitive from justice. And you didn't exactly have the best track record.

Right, right, right. And I'm like, so I can't get any of that time though. So, I'm crying. He's like, you can always try to come back up and get judicial release, which that's like you can go back up in the judge after getting sentenced. I was not even going to try for that. So I go back home, I call my mom, which they were all thinking I was like going to come home and I'm on the phone and I'm like, I'm going to prison in Ohio. Mind you this, I'm the only person in my entire family that's even been arrested. So I'm, they're crying, I'm crying. I'm crying, my daughter, that's like the worst part of all of it. And I think that's why this for me was like what changed me because, I mean, she was six weeks old. She was a baby, like a potato,

right? And I came out and she's a little girl. And I had to relearn her completely. So I go to prison. That in itself was just like a crazy ordeal, nothing I thought I was going to end up doing. and go through admissions. As I'm pulling up to the prison, though, the officer gets out to, like, have his car checked in, check him in, and I scream, like, in the back of the car. Like, and I know that sounds traumatic and it might be, but I was in the back, like, screaming, like crying. Like, this is real. This is not county jail. I'm, like, used to that by now. I'm looking at these women that look like grown men walking. I'm sorry, walk in the yard. And I'm like, this isn't the right prison. Like, I cannot do this.

I'm going to become somebody's bitch. Like, I cannot do this. But, I mean, I can say that I had to do it. And it was just nuts. No, this is a real prison, even though it says reformatory for women? It's... Like, when you think prison barbed wire, you know, an actual, like, cells, what does it look like? So I, like, now that I've gotten out and, like, looked to other prisons or seen other people talk, it's definitely a cushy prison.

And compared to like county jails too, it's probably. Yeah, yeah. So it definitely has like the bar barbed wire fences and everything, the razor wire. But it's almost like a college campus full of criminals because you have a track, you have a basketball court. You have a softball court. You've got cosmetology school. You've got college. You've got, it's not cells, it's open dorm.

So you've got like 200 bunk beds in one room. It's just not what you picture when you think of like prison, I would say. I mean, it's so awful. There's no air conditioning. It's like orange is a new black. Yeah, to an extent, yeah. The girlfriends, people having girlfriends, 100%. That's like the biggest reason people fight in there.

you don't see that many fights. It's very different from what I hear men's prison is like. You don't really worry. I saw maybe like three fights while I was there. And what would they fight over girlfriends or? Girlfriends or drugs or stealing. Like somebody stole somebody's food or something. When you're a mid-sized business, you need every competitive advantage you can get.

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Yes. So my plan going into it was to get the hell out. And not like escape, but I was like, what do I have to do to like get out early? like get good days, do whatever. I'm not, like, coming in here and bullshitting around. Like, I'm going to come home to my kid. The entire time that I was in county in Nashville and in prison, I never got rode up once, which was different for me because in the past I didn't care.

I would take me to the hole, you know? But, no, there, it was, I'm in admissions. And this lady that was next to me, she was like, oh, how long do you have? And I'm like 18 months. She's like, what are you in here for? She's like, you know, you qualify for this, for the pilot program. I'm like, the pilot, tell me all about it. Tell me how to get in.

And she's like, yeah, it's like if you have under this amount of time, you can do your last year of your sentence in a halfway house. And I'm like, sign me up. How do I do it? And she's like, you just have to like say you're on drugs. So I, they came, they come in admissions and they do all of these testing. Like, they do your medical stuff. They do your STG to see if you're like gang affiliated.

and then they do a drug and alcohol like testing. I went on there and said I did every single drug under the sun. I was like, if I need to say I shoot up heroin in my neck to get out faster, I don't care, I will, which I hadn't. But I said I did everything. And sure enough, you don't know until you pop out into general population. So they're telling us our, we call them cottages, units, storms, whatever you want to call them. and they're like you're in Kennedy 1 and that's when I knew like I'm going to treatment transfer program

so I was not getting a total because it's a privilege to get in there because you get to do a year of your sentence like I said in the halfway house but you have to do a ton of classes in prison you can't get any write-ups or you lose your bed date you have to go through a bunch like you've very set schedule but I was grateful for it because I did not have to stay there Did anyone come and visit you out there in Ohio? No, it was just too far. And I don't know how like the visitation getting approved for visitation was where you were. It takes like six to eight months to even get approved in Ohio.

So by the time they even got approved, I would be getting out. And it was just a lot. Plus I did not really want my daughter who to come like because she was to the point where she could start remembering. I didn't want her to come and see me in prison after she hasn't seen me since she was six weeks old. Now, while you're in Ohio, you meet a certain someone that has gained a lot of noriety in recent months. Right. Tell us about that experience. And was she there when you got there?

So Mackenzie Shurilla, infamous McKenzie was she had already been there when I got there. She'd been there since like August of 2023 and I got there in April of 2024. And she, you know, like I said, I'm not from there. Apparently this case was like super known in Ohio. And I don't also been incarcerated already for so long. So I hadn't heard of it. But very like when I popped in a general population and saw her, I'm like, what is this girl in here for? She's got full face and makeup on.

She's wearing like hemmed clothes to be really tiny. She just looks like a little girl. What is she doing in here? And you find out very quickly. You know, prison. Women's prison is a gossip mill. So you can know everything you need to know within like an hour of it happening or being told. And so I'm like she, she ran her a cart into a wall.

She's in here for two, 15 year to life since that's crazy. She seems like in good spirit. if you ask me. But I didn't realize, like, how big her case was or how much traction it had gone until after I had gotten out. Because, like I said, I hadn't even heard of her before. But she was hard to miss, you know? Like, I was not friends with her.

I tried to make that very known because the press and people have gone and said I was her cellmate. Keep in mind, I just told you we did not have sales. We were open bay. but I think also from the lifestyle that I was living, I'm just naturally somebody who observes people in my surroundings all the time. And I saw her on the yard every single day. And she just acted like the documentary,

the crash, McKenzie Sherella, is not, not the girl that walked to the yard at all. Now, was she sentenced already? Mm-hmm. So that's just for people that were sentenced. Yeah. Now, I think, you know, people see her in the documentary. She's got makeup on.

She's all dolled up. That is how she looks in prison or not how she looks? No, I don't know what looks she was going for right there. She is dolled up. She was dolled up. I don't know if I would consider that dolled up in that documentary. It was giving like WoVicky, like old WoVicky, Bad Baby. And that's not how she was.

But I either she was like putting on for the documentary, which I don't. see why you would do that because I don't feel like it was a good look or prison started to really like get to her like she's starting to like institutionalize a little bit because in women's prison you are cool or popular if you want to call it that for if you're like a badass you know and she the way that she talked in the documentary was kind of very like smug and like cutting it or tough edge or whatever you want to call it where she's just that's not how she talks she talks like a valley girl and her hair i don't know why anyone did not tell her that's just not a good look she never wore hair like that when i was there was always braided like in two pigtail braids or

curled and or down like she was a girly girl like gems in her hair um pink lipstick on it was just a very different person than i saw in this documentary that's when she came out in the documentary, my jaw dropped. I had to rewind it like three times. No, she's technically someone that, you know, murdered other kids. How is she treated for that? Is it not bad because she's a kid herself or? So women, I've heard like men that have been to prison say like you got to walk around and show your papers, right? Women's prison's not like that. She's like, I don't want to say like respect. but people she's friends with the lifers and the lifers have like an unsaid level of respect you know

just because that's their home nobody's like super phased by her she's what you consider like everyone knows her knows why she's in there people aren't phased by her they're not going to go like beat her up nobody goes and beats anyone up because of why they're in there I wish that they did but I wasn't going to do it because I wanted to get out and I think that's the way a lot of the women think, especially like with the people who do things to children, you would think something would happen to them, but it doesn't. But McKenzie, yeah, she was just, I mean, she got a lot of attention, one, because she had a lot of stuff that you cannot get easily in prison. Like, she had all the makeup, she had all the, like, limited edition type of clothing, all the, like,

the Nike stuff that we don't know where it came from. There's only one on the prison yard. She had all of that. And I think that drew a lot of attention to her because when you see that, you instantly know, like, oh, she has money. Like, her family has money. Like, I'm going to mooch off of her or whatever you want to call it. But no one really felt any, I guess, or, like, showed any feeling of anger about why she was in there. Why do you think she had all that? Her mother.

So she's able to form a relationship with the guards and get that. in or? I, so I don't know. I think she's gotten it through like past inmates that I've gotten it because that's kind of how it works. Like, oh, I'll sell this to you. Say it's like a pink t-shirt that they had an event seven years ago in the prison and there's like only a couple left. I'll sell you this t-shirt for a hundred bucks. Her mom is going to buy it. And I know it was her mom because those were one of the few conversations I've had with her was about jewelry that she was making that was her her prison hustle she was making jewelry yeah she made she made jewelry she customized shoes she customized hats like that you could get in the boxes and i talked to her about

that and so cash up rules the prison you know you call i'm gonna call this person they're gonna cash up you you let me know and i'll give you whatever it is you want and she told my friend who was trying to buy the nose rings that she was making she was like um send it to send $25 to this cash up and then I'm going to call my mom and she tells me she gets it. I'll bring it out on the next yard. So I know it's her mom still like enabling her bullshit, which I didn't know at the time

because I hadn't watched anything about it. I've been inside too. Did she seem remorseful at all? No. And it's like a lot of people have kind of came at me for saying that because like I said, I was not best friends with her.

and I don't know what's going on in her brain, right? Some people can stuff it all down and seem totally different. But the things that she was doing in prison, the way that she was acting in the way that she carried herself. Like she woke up at 6 o'clock in the morning every day to do a full face of makeup and curl her hair or style her hair and accessorize her prison uniform to go where, nowhere, to go to the prison yard,

to get a girlfriend or be seen. And to me, like, if you're remorseful, your first thing to do every morning is not going to be, like, to get attention for the way you look or to do makeup. I was in prison. I love makeup. I love hair. I'm a self-proclaimed, like, girly girl, right? I didn't my makeup once, once or twice.

One of them was for my release photo. Like, it just never. Who am I trying to look good for? I don't care if anyone sees me in here. I'm in prison. And I hate the fact that I'm in prison. I hate that I was so dumb to do the dumb shit to be taken away from my family.

My mind's just not on getting ready. She did not come off as remorseful. She came off as very, like, chipper. Now, do they sell makeup on commissary? So they sell a little bit on commissary, but your family can order you boxes. So we have like the sundry boxes your family can order. And that's got like all the makeup and art stuff.

You've got your like, what is it? Sweatpants, basketball shorts, like all your like loungewear, I guess, that you can wear on the yard after dinner. Tennis shoes. Your family can order you that stuff through there. But it's expensive. It's more expensive than if you were to go into like the dollar store and buy it. And then people just pass it through when they're about to leave. You can get this.

You can get this. But she had a lot of makeup. And to do it every day you had to, like, have a lot. Did you end up watching the documentary when you went home? When it came out, I guess. Yeah. So when it – I had made a video about being in prison with her like a year ago when I first came home. And I had gained, like, a little bit of traction.

So the people that had been following me were like – you have to watch the documentary. It's coming out tonight. It's coming out tonight. I'm like, and I just happened to be off work. So I was like, sure, I'm going to watch it. And I was like, the first half of the documentary, I think the reason why this documentary got so much attention, because there's been other ones about it. But I think it's because she was actually in it after being in prison, like while in prison. And I just sat down and made a video about it and went crazy. But, Yeah, I watched that one. When I came home, I watched the HBO Max Mean Girl murders one. And so a lot of the information is the same for the first half of the crash as it was in that one.

So I already knew a lot about it. But seeing her and her, when she turned to her lawyer at like mid-crying, right? She's in tears. She just had no intent. No intent. she thinks the camera stop rolling she turns do you think I did too much just completely changed I'm like oh there she goes her voice was back normal everything it was just like crazy

to me do you think she did it based on you know your experience in prison and seeing yes now I feel like I have my theory on what happened we all do you know I feel like that's a big thing right now

everyone's going back and forth no this is what happened and this is what happened. My theory is that that night, because we've seen, it's come out since her and Dominic were toxic. I think she woke up, he wasn't there, or they got into an argument,

she said, let's leave this part, let's leave this house. Or he said, yeah, you can go get your shit out of my house. And Davian, I think he wanted to go to make sure his friend was okay or make sure she got her stuff out the house or, you know, just be. be there for his friend or even de-escalate the situation. But I think that they just kept arguing and she said, oh, you're going to leave me or you think that this is done or you want to see crazy?

And she floored it. I don't think that it was like planned out. A lot of people say that she, because in that HBO Max, the Mean Girl Murders episode about her, they show where she had taken that route like eight times prior. but they don't show it in the crash and then they came out to say that's because that was a very common route like for people who lived there

very common cut through so I don't think that she sat there and like meticulously planned it out I don't think it was premeditated I think it was like spur of the moment which doesn't make it any better but

the way that I've seen her be like consumed with attention from her people, whether it be like friends or relationships or just being about herself in general and her way, yeah, I think I think she did it. Did the prison put any extra care in maybe making sure that she was or is on suicide watch or anything like that? Because after a crash like that, you know, given the circumstances.

The prison didn't. Now, I've gone back and like listened to some of the phone calls when she was in county jail because I think a lot of people think that all the phone calls that are being released are her in prison but they're they're being released from when she was in her county jail um years prior yeah you can hear her saying like get me out of this pot they have her on they had her on PC when they because it was a high profile profile case but in prison now you know it's interesting it shares a lot or tells a lot about um the prison culture or society that you're in there for fraud essentially or evading or whatever it is very minor compared to what she did.

And you're just casually roaming around with lifers and you're there for 15 months. Right. And that's what everyone said they're like, they don't separate y'all. And I'm like, no. No, you, I had some bunkeys who were in there for some crazy stuff. And I'm like, oh, yeah, it's normal. What's this one in for? You know?

I don't know why. They do like extensive classifying when you go through admission. and they take everything. So it's in levels. So you got level one, level two, level three. I was level two because of my age. So I was in there. I was 24. How old am I right now? I think it was 25, 24, 25. If you're under the age of 28, you're automatically up to level. They just say that you're more, I guess, prone to get into some BS. If you're affiliated, you go up a level. If you have been in prison before and have a track record with, like, write-ups in prison, you go up a level. I think that McKenzie will get moved to maximum based off of her behavior right now.

Because Marysville, so Ohio Reformatory for Women, is medium security. But I've done, I've looked at her write-ups and she's gotten a ton. and they evaluate that. You know, every time you get another write-up, especially if it's one that you go to the hole for, like they evaluate that and see if you need to go to Dayton, correctional, which is maximum, which is cells, which is, they say it has a lot more violence.

People fall into cells and fight things out. You've got more violent offenders there. But a lot of times they don't automatically just send you out there. But I do think that she'll end up there. I think it comes with age too. She's very young. She hasn't experienced much. Yeah.

And then there's all this attention on her, which is probably the worst thing possible. Yeah. For being in that environment. I think she loves it. I do. It also, it's so fresh and stuff. I think with time, I mean, it's not going to be the same way 10 years from now, you know? Yeah.

This is just a lot on someone, especially in prison. Yeah. And I'm sure they're watching it or the guards are talking her or treating her a certain way. Yeah. Well, for sure. Because when I did read like the in-depth, like, disciplinary records, you see, like, she's gotten a lot of write-ups recently

that have gotten thrown out. So it's almost like the COs are, like, messing with her. Are there cell phones in there, like, for contraband? When I was there, there wasn't. No. Now I've heard there are at Dayton at the maximum one, weirdly enough. But, no. The biggest contraband there is K2.

Oh, the woman used K-Dade. K2? Oh, like crazy. Wow. You'll see a woman give her entire TV away for like this much K2. Yeah, K2 is a big thing in the federal system too. Were you guys able to get your own mail, like not photocopies? Nope. We got it photocopied in so the COs were bringing it in. We watched a bunch of them get walked. You watch them get walked off the yard all the time because they'll bring internal affairs in and they've got the dogs and they're finding a stack of this much paper on like the unit managers. desk, right? So this is supposed to be somebody who is helping with like resources and stuff. And the whole time they're bringing the spice or the K2 and the tomb, whatever you want to call it.

Now, how are the male guards with the females? Most of them, you get the impression that like their wife beats them at home. Or like, I don't know, because they just come in like really, like they hate women almost. Some of them are creepy and are weird. There was a couple that were weird. What was your experience with them? I like kept my head down in person because I was like, if they don't see me, like, if I don't get in their way, then they have no reason to, like, mess with me or give me a hard time. But, like, the ones that were in my unit, you know, I would chop it up.

I would laugh, but they were very much. They were like, I would tell them, I don't know. I feel like I'm pretty personal. I can, like, get in where I fit in pretty good. And so I would tell them I was like, your wife, you didn't get your wife a beer fast enough or something this morning, like jokingly, and they'll take it as a joke. Now, there was a couple, like, especially in county, like, that would make me very uncomfortable. That would say things or pull you out because I used to clean while I was in county.

And I would stay out of the cells because we were 23 and one there. and I would come out and clean like rock man at a night time. And there was this one and he would always say things like, oh, you know your mugshot. Everyone's seen your mugshot. You're like the Barbie. Yeah, you look good in that mugshot. Or then he would slowly say things. Like he was playing young Dolph on the computer one night.

And he was like, you know why I like young Dolph? And I'm like why? And he was like, because he's got all the bad white bitches. And it's like me and just him. And I'm like, okay, I'm going to point the table down. or he's like, I'm going out to this restaurant. First of all, I don't give a shit. I'm in jail, so have fun at your dinner restaurant.

I don't know why you're telling me this. And he's like, well, you think when you get out, you'll go with me. And I'm like, no, you're weird. This is making me very uncomfortable. And there's nobody around. So I tried to tell them because it got to a point where he was like making me really uncomfortable. And I would tell like some of the CEOs that were cool with me. and nothing would happen because it's just me and him so they're not going to take my word

I'm an inmate he's a CEO turns out like six months later they found a bunch of letters in one of the girls uh cells from him and internal affairs came in then they want to pull me out pull like five other girls that he was doing it to and like talking to and I'm like but you don't want to believe us when people are saying that it's happening now I'm prison I don't know. They're not as bad. They'll say some things under their breath. Did you ever think about using it to your advantage like you did with the sugar daddies? No, I just had to get out. I was like, I was short time. So I was like, now a lot of girls did. Now speaking of sugar daddies, okay, sorry. That was like a huge thing. And that's a huge thing in women's prison. That's like the number one hustle is these.

pen pal websites. I mean, I didn't get on it, but if I, I mean, if I had to do a long time and I didn't have any support, I would just because of what I've seen. These women are getting like, these, but they even tell us about it in admissions. Like, don't do it. You know, we've had people get out and like call and say, call the prison and say, this lady has been telling me for four years that she was coming home to me. I bought her house for. I bought a car for her. And she's nowhere, like, It's a whole thing. I mean, it's like love after lockup. No, literally.

It's like Chipsy, how she met both of them on those pen pal websites. Yeah, that whole thing's crazy. Yeah. I mean, even the, even the thing with Ryan, like the, have you followed the whole? Yes. I mean, he just won't let it go. And I get that his schick, but at this point, it's like, it's like, he just put picture, a picture of their text messages and was like, this was right after Aurora was born or something.

And I'm like, yeah, I think she's messy too because she's not developed. socially in that realm yet but she's doing a lot too but you look at how he looks versus her and just the whole thing it's love after lockup and i watched a couple episodes of love after lockup and you look at some of these guys versus the woman and and they're going all out yeah some guys will be in a rush and they'll they want to get married as soon as you know you get out just to lock you down yeah well that's how it is and like these women are having these men like come visit them in person and i'm like you have to kiss them the whole and it's like a laugh I think, like, joke.

Like, we know. They come back and they're like, oh, yeah, he just gave me, he just cashed at my mom, $500. I'm like, you don't understand, like, y'all do not know. Y'all could get out after telling these people for years this. They could snap. Like, you could end up dead. That's like you're playing with somebody's, like, feelings and stuff.

But at the same time, they're, like, providing everything they need and more. in a bunch of them. Their tablet is like just full of people that I met them on GTO. I'm like, dude, they have Facebook pages for it. Ride a prisoner.

How is the food in there in Ohio? Oh, God. It is awful. It's Airmark. What do you mean, Airmark? The brand Airmark. I've never heard of it.

What is that like an airport? Airport food? No, it's like dog food. Walk us through like the menu, like through the week. Variations of Mississippi. So, well, like Wednesday's chicken patty day. That's all right, right? Wednesdays is good because Wednesday morning, you get French toast. Right? Wednesday night, you get chicken patties.

Now the rest of it is like goulash. Okay. Then they take that same meat from goulash night and it's got like, it's like meat and potatoes. And it's just a variation of all. It's just terrible. It's awful. the smell the chow hall is the hottest building on the prison campus there's because there's no I was there in the middle of a heat wave it's like a big tin can the smell will take you out I still get like nightmares about it I rarely ever woke up and went to breakfast I rarely went to dinner I'm just commissaryed it up I gained weight in prison what was your favorite commissive cereal. So we made these things called like chicken patties, right, where we would take, you know, like the chicken that they sell on commentary, the bag chickens like tuna, potato chips,

mayonnaise and ranch and make it into a patty and you fry it in the microwave and put it on a bagel. And they had, I have not been able to find this condiment since I've been out of prison. It's called Sweet Hot. It's amazing. I would put it on everything. Oh, the sweet and hot sauce. Yes. Do you know what I'm talking about? Yeah, it's not called Sweet and Hot, but it's a brand that you can get. It's like an Asian type of sauce. I don't know what it is, but I've looked. If you know where to find it, let me know.

It's different on the street, but it's like this Asian type of sauce. It's so good. Yeah. We put it on everything. It's really good. So how long do you end up doing in that Ohio prison? Like seven months. So I did the last year in the halfway house.

In Ohio? So they made you still stay in Ohio. Then we stay in Ohio. In Toledo, Ohio. So I don't know if you're familiar with Toledo. I have no shade to Toledo. What's better, the halfway house or prison? I would say the halfway house.

Now I heard it was different for you. Yeah, the halfway house sucks in the feds. But for you, I'm thinking because you're in a different state. So the halfway house that I went to was a federal halfway house too. Yeah, they mix it with the state. Were you with men too or just women? There were men there, but we were like divided other states. sides of the of the building I guess so do you get a job out there oh you were able to get a job okay so

you had some freedom but you're on your own because you don't so I walked to work through Toledo Ohio which Toledo is dangerous city and I worked at a restaurant I served and I bartended so I was walking home through Toledo Ohio at like 11 o'clock at night midnight but I worked all the time because I did not want to be there any chance. And I'm the type of person that's like now at my job. I'm like calling out, can anyone take my shift? They'll ask me to cover shift. I'm like, I can't.

I can't do it. There I'm like, is anyone who got off a shift they can give up? Like, I'm ready to work. I just wanted to not be able to be at the halfway house. Was it hard to find work? No. It was way easier to find work there in Ohio than Tennessee. Why do you think that is?

So I think part of it has to do. Tennessee is not felony friendly. I've always served and bartended in the past when I've worked a real job. You have to get your ABC license in Tennessee in order to work in an establishment that sells alcohol. And they are very hesitant about giving it to felons. Now in Ohio, if you can make a margarita, you can bartend. They don't care if you're over at 21. Now, when I was getting my ABC license in Tennessee, it took me four months of going back and forth.

I had to send them so many certificates from the halfway house, a letter from my GM in Ohio, like a letter of my case manager, this. And it was really hard. They just don't. And so now when you're at the halfway house, do you pay the halfway house? Do you give them a cut of your check? Yeah. So they take, oh, God, I can't remember. I think it's like 10%.

but I got mine waived because, so they take all your money, right, and they save it for you. And you get $100 a week out of your account, which during it, I was like, dude, this blows, right? Because it's my money. I'm working for it. $100 a week. We could only go to Walmart, like once a week. So it didn't need more than $100 a week. But I got mine waived because I was on child support because my mom had custody of my

daughter. I've totally missed that part. But while I was in carcerned, my mom got a temporary custody of my daughter. And she needed to put her in daycare. Daycare is crazy expenses. She had to put me on child support to get help through the state. Your mom really likes you utilizing the system to go after you. Yeah, yeah. So, but it was fine. I mean, we came up to it. It wasn't like, it was an agreed amount. But because I was paying child support, I was able to waive my halfway house fee. So it ended up being less than I would have paid out. Anyway. How to feel to finally come back to Tennessee? Coming home was crazy because I was coming home to a totally different life, and I knew that in my head. I rode the Greyhound to my grandparents' house, and that's where my daughter was that morning. I got there at like seven in the morning.

My daughter was asleep, and she woke up, and it was. was like, it was like, I was never gone, which is the craziest thing. She literally looked up at me and said, Mama, you're back. And she was six weeks old when I left. And I'm like, dude, what? And it was, I'm going to cry. I don't want to cry. But she just, I mean, and it was it was, it's like been instant for me. There's just no, nothing anybody could do or try to make me do to, to have me go back. I'm a single mom. So I'm all that she has. and I don't want to put her through that again. I think that everything happens for a reason in the way that it does for a reason.

I knew that I was going to have to go away. I didn't know for how long. I think I went away when she was so young because she was still young enough to not remember or recall. And it saved me. I needed to go. I needed. I needed that. You also got it out of your system very.

young. Like, you're still young now. How old do you know? I'm just kidding. I'm 27. That's young, you know. I got out of prison young too. Yeah. Like 21, right? I got out at like 23, 24. So kind of similar in age. And I think, like, I'll interview some people that are, you know, they go to prison at 40 and they're getting out. And I just feel like that's so much harder. Yeah. Granted, what you went through is extremely hard at the time you're going through it. I think it's easier to rebound because then you have so much more life going forward. Like I'd rather go to prison young, get that out of my system, and then, you know, live life after that.

I feel like it's harder when you're 30 or 40 or. Yeah, for sure. Like if I went to prison tomorrow with everything I have now, I would just be way harder to come back from that. Yeah, for sure. I feel like I kept going back and forth so much that I was like almost like train. Like I knew what I had to do to. to restart and rebuild, I had just always implemented it in like the worst way when I got out.

And my family always used to tell me, they were like, if you would just put a fourth of the effort that you put into bullshit into something legit and something good, you'll be really successful. And now I tell other people that. Now, was your plan to never talk about prison again, put it behind you, kind of keep it, you know, buttoned up and not share that, especially because you're at a point in your life where, you know, you were ready to move forward? Um, yeah, so I was so embarrassed. I live in a very suburban town, right? People go to jail for a gram of wheat. Okay. I started cosmetology school very quickly when I came home and I started working. I lied to them. I made up, I had so many different stories as to Wyo. I didn't know about this or I miss this or I'm just now because I was in And I was like, I'm not telling, they're going to look down on me. They're going to judge me because that happens when you hear prison and you hear felon. And I don't want to deal with that. And I don't know. And my family, my grandparents, I love them so much. They're really ashamed about that aspect of my life. They're happy of where I came now. But like my grandma used to lie as to why wasn't at Thanksgiving or things of that sort. and I didn't want to like disgrace them even more, which this has been very hard for them to adjust to, but they're finally seeing that I'm trying to send a bigger picture.

But my intentions was just to like bury it. Don't tell any when you went to prison. What the heck? It's crazy. Why did that change? Because I said like, I guess this is one of the good times. my fuck it button came in handy. I said, fuck that. It's part of my story. And because I finally,

like, I know, I got to a point, I feel personally for me, I did a lot of things. I accomplished a lot of stuff really fast for somebody who had just gotten out of prison because I knew I wasn't going to waste any time. And I knew it was like game time. Like, I'm not going back. I'm not. I have to be an adult. And so anybody who knew me would be able. to tell the, like, how much I've grown. And it shouldn't bother them that I want to, like, share my story or, like, use it to help other people. People ask me all the time, how do you get a, you know, how do you get a job as a felon? Or how did you get approved for an apartment? Or, I feel myself veering off on the wrong path and I just can't seem to get it back, like, get it straight.

Do you have any advice? And that is, like, fulfilling. And I enjoy, you know, I said I wanted to work with adolescents, I wanted to help, like, I wanted to be a therapist. And I feel like my the reason behind my story is to help other people. Because we all mess up. We all

mess up. So it's just matter what you do when you come back and not giving up because it's so easy to just I got denied like 35 jobs before I finally got the job that I have. And I could see why people would throw the white towel in and be like,

know what, I'm just going to go buy a pack. I need money. I'm going to die if I don't survive how I know how and I can't get a job to save my life. I can see why people throw the towel in, but I didn't. And we know other people that haven't. You haven't. So I just really want to be someone that can like share that message, like send that. So I don't care about the stigma that comes with it. Of course, there's people that have things to say. They're going to, they would say it even if I didn't tell them I go to prison. So for the audience that doesn't know you, you decided to start sharing your story on social media. What did that do for you internally after you put that first video out there and shared it when you, you know, you kind of broke the ice and told people about yourself?

You know, I think it wasn't even like, I wasn't worried about the opinions of, you know, of anyone else, I was just still worried about my family. I had to tell them. My grandma was like, oh, God, don't, please. Who's going to see it? But after I've, like, sent them and showed them, like, the feedback and the people and, like, what they have to say and people reaching out. And my grandpa came around quicker than my grandmother.

It was like, I understand if that helps you. And if it helps other people, then go for it. And it's just worked. I enjoy it. It's like my own way of therapy because I get to get stuff out too, which is weird. I would rather talk to a bunch of strangers than an actual therapist for people I'm close to, but it works for me. It reminds me when I'm telling these stories or I'm talking about this crazy time I did this,

saying it out loud reminds me. It's like, oh, my God, you don't even sound right saying this stuff. Why would never go back again? I think the cool part is, too, with this type of content is it's entertainment. but it's also like a cautionary lesson tale. And I think what's also cool is that you were able to take, you know, like the McKenzie thing, which was such a brief, when you look at your overall story, that's like a 15-minute moment in your life and you're able to utilize that and use it to propel you. And that's kind of what, like, I tell people that ask me how, how, you know, to make it on social media or put yourself out there, you utilize your story and you kind of figure out what your hook is.

For me, it was, you know, like paying for protection in prison. And for you, it's like that moment with McKenzie and you kind of piggyback off of that. Yeah. So I think that's really cool. Thanks. What do you think was the biggest lesson you've learned going through everything that you went through? That's a heavy question. I think the biggest thing is that you have to be uncomfortable before things get better, whether that be, and that can be for any situation, right?

But for me, I think I never liked being uncomfortable. I did not like doing something I didn't want to do. I did not like putting in work behind myself to become better because it's uncomfortable. I didn't want to do it. It was boring. It took, it was too much work. But now I've come to accept, like, that's part of growing. and if you can get through the uncomfortability of things,

then you can come out completely different and completely whole. So I think that was like a big lesson for me because I had to be uncomfortable in prison to be a successful adult. And I'm still working on it every day. I can still be a little unhinged every now and then have to reel it in. How's your relationship with your mom now? Oh, she's my best friend. She is. I'm really proud of my mom. I've always been really proud of my mom.

Just because she's been through a lot. I've put her through a lot. Brothers put her through a lot. And she's like still, she's always loved me like endlessly, but in a way where she was not going to like co-sign my bullshit. And I needed that because then I would still be doing the same shit. So we've got a good relationship. We laugh. she's excited to watch this. Sorry if I said anything crazy. What would you tell your teenage self if you could sit across from work today?

To slow down and to think. And that every single thing that you do, it's like the butterfly effect. One thing will lead to another. Imagine how you want your life to be in 10 years. Well, Kat, I appreciate you coming out here today and coming on the show. Thank you so much.

Of course. Yeah, thank you. And, you know, all the best on your social media endeavors and the life that you have ahead of you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. You're great. Thank you.