“I love the fact that people are trying to make it a nice place,” he said.

Now living in Chandler, Ramirez says he misses the small-town atmosphere of Maricopa, where he lived for five years and was a prolific Little League coach. “You just go in and live with the wolves, and try to find the drugs,” Ramirez said of the role he adopted. However, he said he realized there was only so much film footage that can be shown in an hourlong episode. Ramirez says he thought the show’s producers were too focused on drama and lacked the softer, human side of convicted inmates, like when they read mail from their kids. “You’re just a lost individual in there,” he said. It’s hard and it’s lonely, unlike most other acting gigs. “There was so many fights in there, it was ridiculous. “I was afraid of getting jumped and stuff,” he said. What he learned his son was facing was not pretty. Getting caught, he believed, would not go well. His stress was doubled by having to convince fellow inmates he was a real criminal. Part of the extreme danger was complicated by Ramirez’s never-ending fear of being discovered as an imposter. He admits it was far more stressful than his real job at the local casino.

While on the reality show, he faced constant death threats, fights, a cellmate who’s “not quite right” in the head, and that look-over-your-shoulder scare of being stabbed in the back. He is cast as a criminal convicted of second-degree murder facing a 12-year stretch, like his son. Ramirez left a steady job as a water services staffer at Intel to take on his first reality TV role, which he based off his violent gangster persona as a youth. “Absolutely,” Ramirez replied in an interview with InMaricopa. Would he put his job on hold and do it again for 60 Days In? Today, he says he’s still recognized at the Harrah’s casino, where he works as a water technician for air conditioning. With that “15 minutes of fame,” as he calls it, Ramirez indeed got the face recognition he wanted. You can stream his acting debut on Hulu and Netflix. Ramirez also wanted to launch a potential acting career and get his face out there, he said.Īs a former gang leader in South Phoenix, Ramirez says he thought he had the built-in street chops for the show.

“I wanted to understand his walk, if you will,” Ramirez said. His son fought and lost a drug-related, second-degree murder rap in the Arizona legal system. Ramirez says he wanted to experience what his son is living though as an inmate serving a 12-year sentence.

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