I Did 12 Years in Prison — Then Married the Guard Who Watched Me | Jacob Bittner

Locked In with Ian Bick

Ian Bick

Society & Culture

4.8 • 743 Ratings

🗓️ 11 May 2026

⏱️ 89 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Jacob Bittner was a teenager from a good home when a series of bad decisions led to 12 years in the Arkansas prison system. In this episode of Locked In with Ian Bick, Jacob breaks down how it all unraveled — from his first robbery, to going on the run, to pulling off another one and paying for it with over a decade of his life. He opens up about surviving the violence and harsh realities of Arkansas prisons, the lessons he learned the hard way, and the twist nobody saw coming — after his release, he fell in love with and married a prison guard. _____________________________________________ #Prison #TrueCrime #LockedIn _____________________________________________ Thank you to RAYCON & INCOGNI for sponsoring this episode: Raycon: The Everyday Earbuds Classic are the perfect addition to your everyday routine. Go to Bhttps://buyraycon.com/IANBICK to get 15% off! _____________________________________________ Incogni: Take back your personal data with Incogni! Use code IANBICK at https://incogni.com/ianbick to get 60% off annual plans. _____________________________________________ Hosted, Executive Produced & Edited By Ian Bick: https://www.instagram.com/ian_bick/?hl=en https://ianbick.com/ _____________________________________________ Shop Locked In Merch: http://www.ianbick.com/shop _____________________________________________ Timestamps: 00:00 From Good Kid to Armed Robber — Jacob's Story 00:14 Growing Up Between Idaho and Arkansas 01:36 Moving Around and Never Fitting In 03:23 The Moment School Stopped Mattering 04:44 Culture Shock, Bad Influences and First Mistakes 05:08 The First Time He Crossed the Line 06:22 How Deep Into Crime He Really Got 07:57 Why He Did It — Money, Rush and Belonging 09:36 The People Who Pulled Him Further In 10:33 Gangs, Excitement and the Point of No Return 13:00 First Time Getting Caught by Police 14:25 The Arrest That Should Have Stopped Everything 15:15 The Birthday Weekend That Changed His Life Forever 20:22 Getting Caught — The Arrest He Didn't See Coming 22:47 Facing Charges and Navigating the Legal System 26:00 First Taste of Jail and What It Really Feels Like 29:03 He Made Bond — Then Committed Another Robbery 31:20 On the Run as a Fugitive and What Followed 33:46 Returning to Arkansas and Facing the Music 38:32 The Day He Was Sentenced and What Came Next 41:00 What His Family Went Through While He Was Inside 44:00 The Mindset Shift That Saved Him in Prison 46:14 What Arkansas State Prison Is Really Like 49:57 The Unwritten Rules of Surviving Prison 51:46 Hustling Behind Bars — Business, Fights and Survival 56:00 The Moment He Decided to Change 01:00:00 Transferred to Idaho — A Completely Different Jail 01:03:40 Learning to Fit In and Move Forward 01:06:00 The Phone Call From His Grandfather That Changed Everything 01:08:06 Finding Purpose — Programs and Plans Inside 01:10:58 The Prison Program Where Everything Changed 01:13:01 How He Met the Prison Guard He Would Marry 01:16:12 Final Years Inside and the Road to Work Release 01:23:01 Life After Prison — Family, Work and Building Something Real 01:25:00 What He Would Tell His Younger Self 01:27:07 Final Thoughts and the Lessons That Stuck _____________________________________________ To advertise on the show, contact sales@advertisecast.com or visit https://advertising.libsyn.com/LockedInWithIanBicka Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	My guest today served 12 years in an Arkansas prison, and when he got out, he married the guard who watched over him.
0:06.4	His name is Jacob Bittner, and this is his story.
0:13.9	Well, I grew up in Idaho and Colorado, kind of separate from each other, and then in Arkansas a little later. So I grew up along a lot of places. But the vast majority of my school I did in Idaho and Arkansas.
0:28.1	Why did you split time in different places?
0:30.0	I just my parents, man, they split around when I was real young. From a baby to fifth grade, I didn't go to the same school a single year. In fifth grade on didn't go to the same school a single year in fifth grade on I went to the same school till senior but yeah I was moved around a lot and had a little brother and my parents they just you know they were young when they had me they had a lot going on they were in and out of some drug stuff you know until they got their stuff together. They moved us around a lot. You know, it would be in the middle of the night. My dad would have to call my mom, drive, catch a Greyhound bus to come get us. And then we'd be in Colorado again, you know. Oh, so they were split. Oh, yeah. Yeah, they were split since I was real young. So my brother never remembers them
1:12.7	together. Do you have early memories of them? Yeah, some of them, sure. I was pretty young. What did
1:18.6	do for work? My dad ended up owning his own plumbing company eventually, but by then I didn't have
1:24.5	nothing to do with him. My mom, she's been a career waitress her whole life.
1:28.4	She's been with the same man. My stepdaddy's been around a long, long time since about
1:32.9	the time my original parents split up. Do you think you had a good childhood looking back on it?
1:39.0	Yeah. I'm just going to sound maybe a little weird. I didn't have a white suburban childhood, maybe like we lived because we didn't have money,
1:47.8	but I still had a good childhood as far as where I grew up, how I grew up, like the people around me.
1:55.3	But as far as like having things, we didn't have things.
1:58.8	You know, there was times living with my dad when we were younger, we didn't have TVs. And yeah, we would live in people's basements and stuff sometimes. But he had, like, he had albums. We'd listen to his albums. That was when I was really young. My little brother probably don't remember much of that. But now it was just young, man. My parents, like I said said they had me when they were real young my mom
2:20.1	was a teenager and they just trying to figure it out you know how do you think that shaped you as an
2:25.3	individual um well early on i mean i i had to do a lot with my little brother early on my parents
2:32.6	would be either gone at work whatever they
2:34.3	were doing i can remember times when i'd be real young eight eight years old being my brother
2:39.9	would be at the house he'd have been three-ish and i had to take care of him i'd make him food you know
2:46.0	and by how you know we'd live in apartments i live i didn't have a house until I guess I was in high school.
2:55.2	We always lived in apartments or we lived in trailers or, you know, stuff like that.
2:59.9	We just grew up poor white, but, you know, in white areas, you know, but we're poor, like, you know, I don't know,
	...

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