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Sparkle (1)
Remember Scared Straight!, the original 1978 documentary directed by Arnold Shapiro and narrated by Peter Falk? This documentary was a groundbreaking television special about a group of young and cocky juvenile law offenders who, as part of a juvenile rehabilitation program, got to come face-to-face with hardened criminals who told them about the harsh realities of prison life … in the most graphic of terms.
Inmates in a New Jersey jail, some lifers, didn’t just describe their prison lives for the youngsters. They also screamed at, threatened, berated and belittled them, all in an effort to scare them straight.
When this Academy Award-winning show aired, it didn’t just scare the kids straight! I, like many of my adult friends, had never before been exposed to the inside of a prison and the scary people who are incarcerated there. We had previously only heard distant rumors about prison life. And those distant rumors were terrifying enough. But with this documentary, the inmates, both victims and victimizers, openly explained the truth. And their truth was excruciatingly hard to hear and yet undeniably captivating. The captivating part, harsh and intense footage, was undoubtedly why Scared Straight! became a cultural phenomenon and a household term.
The power of the original Scared Straight! program inspired dozens of inmate-run intervention programs in men's and women's prisons across the country and in at least nine other countries. And it garnered a great deal of scrutiny, debate and study.
Those who watched had no doubt that the Scared Straight experience would do what it was supposed to do -- keep kids out of jail. But the experts were not so sure. According to the producers, the film made a huge impact on the participants. The documentary’s follow-ups and updates -- Scared Straight: Another Story (1980), Scared Straight! Ten Years Later (1987) and Scared Straight! 20 Years Alter (1999) -- indicate that not all but most of the original kids straightened out and became law abiding citizens. None of them were ever tried for a felony.
On the other hand, there is a considerable body of evidence that indicates these programs are not effective. Controlled studies suggest that though they may intuitively seem effective, Scared Straight programs do not deter crime in youth, and may, in fact, increase delinquency and be detrimental to the juvenile participants.
This is curious given the proliferation and persistence of these programs over the years. It is evident that the Scared Straight intervention model has long been popular among policymakers and funders. For example, despite the studies’ findings indicating that the programs don’t work, the governor of Illinois signed a bill into law requiring that at-risk high school students tour a state prison. Even now, Scared Straight programs continue to be funded and run nationwide.
Regardless of their apparent real-world ineffectiveness, there is no doubt that in our current reality-show-driven media, Scared Straight programs make for tantalizing TV … still. A&E Network is planning to air Beyond Scared Straight, a new series executive produced by Arnold Shapiro (the original Scared Straight director), that will profile similar Scared Straight programs and other approaches to juvenile crime prevention in prisons around the U.S. The four-part series premieres Thursday, January 13 at 10PM ET/PT with a special 90-minute episode at a women’s prison in central California.
I’ve previewed the premiere episode which features the Crossroads Program at Valley State Prison, Chowchilla, California. And I must say, the women showcased therein (both the troubled girls and the prison inmates), deliver the expected shock and drama we’ve come to associate with Scared Straight programming.
This female group of juvenile delinquents start out talking tough and seem quite proud of their legal entanglements. Some of them are looking forward to the day in prison, they say. They think it will be “fun.” At one point, when the girls are touring the open prison yard, one girl comes face-to-face with her mother, who, unbeknownst to her, is an inmate. In all, the program has the same impact on me as the original. The inmates are scary, the conditions are harsh and there is still nothing about
