How Beyond Scared Straight Failed to Prevent Kids From Becoming Criminals

Beyond Scared Straight is easily one of the most controversial shows in history parents of troubled youth pay for their children to tour the inside of a prison or County jail so they can be exposed to the dark reality of Life Behind Bars when they arrive they meet with real inmates who strike fear into them with threats with the goal being to prevent today's teenagers from becoming tomorrow's prisoners but their exposure therapy techniques are definitely questionable [Music] yeah chill out you are starting in the wrong way it's Kool-Aid we put this on wishes like you lick your lips let's stick your hand in that Kool-Aid just stick it in there now take your finger just do this to the bottom one come here I kiss you you orange flavor [ __ ] [Music] yeah try me I want you to try me I want you to try me try now there's no doubt that the show is entertaining and has given us some pretty hilarious moments over the years however our entertainment is at the expense of children suffering and the craziest part is it has been proven on multiple occasions that scared straight doesn't work in fact it might actually increase their chances of becoming lifelong criminals a lot of people don't realize that scared straight is not just a television show on a e it's a program that has been implemented all over the United States for the past 50 years and the reason it got so popular was based on just one alleged successful experiment Scared Straight was the name of a television documentary released in 1978 produced by Arnold Shapiro it was critically acclaimed won an Academy Award and even won an Emmy see they're gonna put lipstick on your lips earrings in your ear and I do swishing your ass up and down these tears hustling cigarettes for your man the film documented youth offenders who visited Rahway State Prison in New Jersey they met with inmates with the goal of being so scared of going to prison that they went on to live a straight or crime-free life the documentary claimed that 80 to 90 percent of the 8 000 children who visited rahway's program would go on to remain law-abiding citizens afterwards the popularity and surprisingly positive results led to more than 30 States rapidly implementing the program no further questions were asked jails and prisons all over the country saw one documentary and thought they had a solution to all of their youth offender problems the program's validity was immediately questioned by juvenile delinquency professionals but that didn't stop it from becoming popular the original documentary was followed by Scared Straight another story in 1980 also produced by Arnold Shapiro this one was just a dramatic film the subjects were actors who did scripted reenactment of their Petty crimes which led them to entering the Scared Straight program being screamed at and then feeling reformed after a couple overnights in the prison then in 1987 Scared Straight 10 years later aired I'll be your host for Scared Straight 10 years later a fascinating update on what's happened to the kids and the convicts filmed a decade ago what I steal I need and I want it's embarrassing 10 years ago um yeah I did that I did that to look good now the difference is I want to look good but I like to pay for what I take we got to see the original 1978 crew and they all explained how much the program changed their life for the better the second half of the documentary introduced a new group of troubled teenagers after their trip to Rahway State Prison the documentary claimed that all 17 of the youth offenders were Crime Free just three months after their visit then MTV connected with Shapiro for another sequel Scared Straight 99 this documentary was potentially the most raw and shocking of them all the prisoners were threatening these kids to levels we had never seen before one inmate made a kid hold his pocket as he walked around the cell [Music] [Music] this was highly regarded as one of the best out of the series and people still genuinely believe this was an effective form of therapy for youth offenders which makes sense when you consider the societal standard during this time period mental health issues that are widely known today had not been vigorously studied mental health as a whole wasn't taken as seriously as it is now plus it was a lot more common for parents to use tough love and physical punishment to discipline their children these programs were seen as an extremely cheap and convenient solution to a very complex problem that is juvenile delinquency but where Scared Straight received renowned media attention was when they released their 20 years later special they claimed that of the 17 original 1978 children only one of them became a career criminal the 95 success rate shocked news Publications Scared Straight was a miracle solution they use 17 people's stories for 20 years to justify this entire program around the United States but the popular a E Series you all know and love didn't come until 2011 and was produced by the same man Arnold Shapiro but first a quick word from our sponsor Underdog fantasy I want to tell you about the easiest way to get in on some NBA action with Underdog fantasy and their Pick Em game just find your favorite player or any player really pick higher or lower on that player's stats and you can win up to 20 times your money in one night Underdog keeps everything super simple with their intuitive website and their mobile app pick between two to five players to fill your pick em entry get every pick right and you can net yourself some serious cash use code Patrick CC and get your deposit doubled up to 100 by Underdog Underdog fantasy is available in many states across the U.S check this map to see if you are in one of the eligible States Again download the underdog fantasy app use code Patrick CC and get those picks in thanks Underdog fantasy so by the time most of us became aware of scared straight it had already been a well-seasoned program all over the United States for 30 plus years Beyond Scared Straight was a TV show that documented the experiences of troubled children as they embarked on a forced tour of a maximum security prison or jail during the tours inmates and officers would go to the greatest lengths screaming blocking them in cells putting lipstick on them roughing them up anything they could do to shock the children and make them terrified of going to prison in hopes that it would steer them clear of a life of crime what's up you like to fight homie that's what you like to do huh you little [ __ ] you's a [ __ ] I'm gonna use a Pop Tart I see right through you homie you've been that stuff he don't know you can't speak up anymore this was the most staggering and horrific Scared Straight program we had ever seen and people loved it the show's Premiere alone attracted a staggering 3.7 million viewers making it the most watched original series debut in the Network's history the undeniable success of Beyond Scared Straight LED them to producing 83 episodes across nine Seasons spanning from 2011 until 2015 but the most eye-opening realization about this show is that the Scared Straight program was proven by the federal government not to work since the release of the original film many Justice institutions and criminal prevention professionals have thoroughly studied the effects of the program to determine if it actually works surprisingly numerous Studies have shown that the Scared Straight method can actually do more harm than good the most significant study was conducted by the U.S Department of Justice after the release of the original film they examined the outcomes of nine controlled trials conducted from 1967 to 1992. this involved over 900 children with the average age of 15 to 17 who participated in Scared Straight Like programs in eight different states also each study was conducted by a different research team every one of these studies also had a control group that did not attend a Scared Straight program so they were comparing youth offenders who went to Scared Straight versus youth offenders who didn't attend one and measured their likeliness to become a reoffender the study found no evidence to support the effectiveness of scared straight and similar programs in fact all analysis showed that involvement in these programs increased measures of crime and delinquency in nearly every one of the nine studies the group who went to Scared Straight had a higher rate of reoffence than the group who didn't go after this comprehensive study was published many others were conducted with different test subjects different age groups and different crimes many of the studies would produce very similar results in 1997 University of Maryland researchers completed a report for congress on the evidence for various crime prevention strategies the researchers had no problem listing scared straight as one of the programs that doesn't work to make things worse these programs could potentially violate federal law in 2002 which was nine years before the first a e episode aired the office of Juvenile Justice and delinquency prevention in Washington informed all states that scared straight programs or similar programs May violate the separation requirement of the jjdp ACT according to the ACT it is mandatory that juvenile offenders and non-offenders should not be detained or confined in any institution where they may have sight or sound contact with adult offenders in short it's illegal to have kids in jail with adults which makes this clip even harder to watch a terrified nine-year-old boy dangled like a raw piece of meat in front of a pack of prisoners his crown stealing pocket change from his mom and lying I think we can all agree that traumatizing a child to this degree for stealing Pocket Change is insane then filming it editing it and putting it out into the world is next level one time they even showed these children a body and described to them what their parents would experience if they go to jail and die while on the inside these programs typically break these children down they start crying are mortified and just want to go home the sad part is their home life is probably rough as well on the surface the concept behind these Scared Straight programs makes sense troubled kids are so afraid of prison that they change their ways to avoid such a dark future however there are multiple examples that say otherwise Toby Keith Johnson was first featured on the show on season 3 episode 13. he was quiet and didn't show any emotion the guards tried to break him down and make him feel bad about his choices but he didn't budge at the end when the parents reunite with the children Toby's mother didn't show up eight months later Toby was featured on the show again this time he was an inmate he was incarcerated for allegations of assaulting his mom he got out two years later on parole but sadly continued a life of crime he was arrested multiple times on meth and gun charges but the most recent one was the worst of them all in August of 2020 he was arrested for imprisoning a 25 year old woman and making threats of harm with Johnson forcefully grabbing the victim by the throat choking her and violently throwing her to the ground the aggression continued with it even going as far as Toby threatening her with a knife law enforcement would report visible signs of bruising on the victim's neck I think it's pretty obvious that Scared Straight had no positive effect on Toby whatsoever Franklin Morris made his premiere on a e in 2012. at the time of filming he was living in Baltimore with his mother Dana in an emotional episode Dana revealed the extent of Franklin's School suspensions stating that she couldn't even begin to give a precise number Franklin himself shared a nonchalant attitude towards his mother's concerns saying my mother says I'm even gonna end up dead or in jail I really don't pay no mind at the young age of 14 Franklin participated in the program already having convictions for gambling and vandalism one of the incidents that landed Franklin a spot on the show saw Franklin and his friends wreak havoc in a store knocking items off the shelves and vandalizing a local shop years after his time on the show Franklin Morris became one of three teenagers who met a grim fate near a playground in North Baltimore alongside a 19 year old and a 17 year old Franklin was found out in the head and pronounced dead at the scene but I thought about going to the jail was it really was no big deal the Reset program it didn't change me it really don't feel no different since the majority of the show's participants were children at the time it's hard to find the long-term results of their lives however based on what I found it seems like a lot of them went on to live regular lives if you search what happened to so and so from Beyond Scared Straight most of what you find is Click bait leading you to an Instagram page of someone who we can't confirm was actually on the show so if the program has been proven to be ineffective through various extensive studies across the past 30 years why did they do a show about it well that's because the guy who has built his entire career from this program Arnold Shapiro is fully convinced that this program is a good thing Shapiro says that all the extensive studies are totally irrelevant because they were done from 1967 to 1999. he also said that only the academic Community believes proper counseling for youth offenders works if Society had the money or resources to do that that would be great if every kid could have years of counseling but it's not realistic it would be interesting if a e used the millions of profits from the show to get these youth offenders counseling since Society doesn't have the money right Shapiro shrugs off the criticism of scared straight there's every variation it works for some it doesn't work for some but you can say that about any program that exists Shapiro thinks that as long as it works for some then it justifies the program and since the program exists he is happy profiting off of it he has openly admitted that the children they decide to be on the show are not the ones that they think will change but rather the ones with the best personality it really is based on their personalities and what happens with them we didn't have any belief that Brandon T from Michigan who stood up to the officers and just kind of had a meltdown would ever change even when the tour was over he got thrown out but we still picked him because it was so explosive and we never saw anything like that before or since although other kids have stood up to officers it's amazing when I went through high school or even College you never thought you would disrespect a teacher or an authority figure especially somebody in law enforcement but these kids have no fear it's crucial to question whether the person suit of profits overshadows moral principles as corporate interests often prioritize ratings and financial gain over the well-being of humans but it makes it even worse when you consider that the people they are affecting are not consenting adults these are children and it's being broadcasted to millions of people to watch them suffer they are being told that this is genuine Rehabilitation and they don't really have a choice to participate occasionally they Rebel so much that they get kicked out of the jail but most of the time they are trapped with no escape the truth is everyone wants a quick and cheap solution to an extremely complicated and layered social problem that is juvenile delinquency but hey as long as it works sometimes it's all good right

Channel: Patrick Cc:

Views: 2,002,105

Keywords: patrickcc, patrickcctv, patrick cc, patrick Cc:, beyond scared straight, scared straight, scared straight 1978, scared straight program, scared straight funny moments, scared straight is fake, scared straight doesnt work, how is scared straight scripted, beyond scared straight fight, what happened to scared straight, why scared straight, why scared straight doesnt work, why scared straight ended

Id: xtAdRDpAbmk

Length: 15min 12sec (912 seconds)

Published: Mon Jun 05 2023