I Was A Prison Guard Inside San Quentin’s Worst Unit | Darren Monohan

Locked In with Ian Bick

Ian Bick

Society & Culture

4.8 • 743 Ratings

🗓️ 13 February 2025

⏱️ 87 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Darren Monohan shares his experience working as a prison guard at San Quentin, guarding Charles Manson, Richard Ramirez, and other high-profile inmates. He discusses the realities of working in a maximum-security prison, the dangers inside, and the challenges of handling death row prisoners. Darren also talks about the prison culture, interactions with infamous criminals, and what it was like to be on the front lines of the California prison system #SanQuentin #PrisonGuard #CharlesManson #RichardRamirez #TrueCrime #LifeBehindBars #DeathRow #InfamousPrisoners Hosted, Executive Produced & Edited By Ian Bick: https://www.instagram.com/ian_bick/?hl=en https://ianbick.com/ Thank you to ROCKET MONEY for sponsoring today’s episode!: Cancel your unwanted subscriptions and reach your financial goals faster with Rocket Money. Go to https://rocketmoney.com/lockedin today. Connect with Darren Monohan: Website: https://oldskooliron.com/ IG: https://www.instagram.com/oldskooliron?igsh=MW10Nmlqc3U3Y2p5Zw== IG: https://www.instagram.com/grumpy_darren?igsh=MW44bXphOHo3NWt2Yw== IG: https://www.instagram.com/grumpy_darren?igsh=MW44bXphOHo3NWt2Yw== Presented by Tyson 2.0 & Wooooo Energy: https://tyson20.com/ https://woooooenergy.com/ Buy Merch: https://www.ianbick.com/shop Use code lockedin at checkout to get 20% off your order Timestamps: 00:00:00 Growing Up in San Jose 00:05:15 Making a Career Decision: Benefits vs. Moral Dilemma 00:10:41 Navigating First Day Challenges as a Rookie Guard 00:15:43 Surviving Chaos: My Second Day on the Job 00:21:13 Career Reflections: From San Quentin to Solano 00:26:15 Life and Challenges at the Adjustment Center 00:31:33 Daily Routine of Inmates in Solitary Confinement 00:36:47 Nightstalkers: Chilling Stories and Encounters 00:42:17 Stories of Charles Manson and His Music Sessions 00:47:35 Life in High-Security USA Prisons 00:52:52 Challenges of Being a Police Officer 00:58:36 Challenges with Young Police Officers 01:03:57 Life as a Street Narcotics Cop in Richmond 01:09:05 Undercover Operation with FBI and DEA 01:14:35 Undercover Operation and SWAT Intervention 01:20:11 Gym Ownership and Partnership 01:25:37 Fear of Flying and Safety Concerns Powered by: Just Media House : https://www.justmediahouse.com/ Creative direction, design, assets, support by FWRD: https://www.fwrd.co Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, Anna, I've got a new secret weapon for print.
0:02.2	Print?
0:02.9	Vista print, right?
0:04.0	That's not a secret. Print everything for your business with Vista print. Business cards, stickers, t-shirt, signage, even photo books from your last holiday. If you need it, we print it at vistoprint.co.uk. Darren, welcome to Lockton or shout out to Spotify for having us in L.A. right now. And I think you might be our first
0:22.7	correctional officer that works San Quentin. We've had a couple inmates from there. But I think
0:28.0	you're our first one. We had, do you know Hector Bravo? I don't know if he works San Quentin,
0:33.5	but he's a correctional officer. He was on the show last year. He is a lot younger, and he makes content about being a guard. And he got all the way up to, I think, like, a lieutenant or something in the system. Oh, wow. He has a YouTube channel. You should definitely check that out. He's a really good dude. Oh, cool. And he kind of, like, exposes all the, like, the craziness in the California system. Right. But thank you for being a listener of the show and thank you for coming out here today. Oh, yeah. Awesome. Thank you for having me. Did you grow up in California? I grew up in San Jose, California. Okay. Yeah. I grew up. I was born in Las Gatos, but grew up in San Jose. Big family? Good family.
1:11.6	My, had a brother, a sister, mom and dad.
1:15.6	So I had one sister, one brother.
1:18.6	And middle class, average family.
1:21.6	Growing up, dad worked hard.
1:23.6	You know, and now just me and my brother left.
1:26.6	Everybody else had passed on.
1:28.2	What did your dad do for work?
1:29.5	He worked at a dairy plant making ice cream.
1:33.8	Oh, wow.
1:34.5	Yeah.
1:35.2	Do you get a lot of free ice cream growing up?
1:36.8	You know that it's it?
1:38.7	It sounds familiar.
1:40.0	They're like ice cream in the middle with cookies and chocolate covered.
1:43.7	Yep, yep, yeah.
	...

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