- Scared Straight!
"Scared Straight!" was a documentary directed by
Arnold Shapiro and released in 1978.The subject of the documentary was a group of cocky teenaged
juvenile delinquent s and the attempts to make them end their criminal ways by introducing them to actual convicts. Filmed atRahway State Prison , a group of inmates known as the "lifers" berate, scream at, and terrify the young hoodlums and attempt to "scare them straight" (hence the film's title) by showing an ugly, harsh presentation of the realities ofprison life. At film's end, the teenagers decide that they don't want to end up in jail. The movie's narration was provided byPeter Falk .The film was followed by "Scared Straight! Another Story" (1980), "Scared Straight! 10 Years Later" (1987), and (on
MTV andUPN ) "Scared Straight! 20 Years Later" (1999). The last sequel, hosted byDanny Glover , showed that the majority of the teens in the original program were, in fact, "scared straight" and went on to lead happy, productive lives.The documentary was shown on television in the late 1970s. It was aired uncensored and marked the first time that the word "
fuck " was broadcast on many networks.The film won the
Academy Award for Documentary Feature in1978 . It also wonEmmy Award s for Outstanding Individual Achievement–Informational Program and Outstanding Informational Program.As a result of the film, many states introduced "scared straight" programs in an attempt to rehabilitate young delinquents. The effectiveness of such programs has been questioned, most significantly by a meta-analysis of seven such programs by Anthony Petrosino et al. (2002, updated 2003), which found that "scared straight" programs not only failed to deter crime, but actually led to more offending behavior. [http://www.campbellcollaboration.org/doc-pdf/ssrupdt.pdf]
Teenagers in the 1978 and 1980 documentaries ranged from 15- to 19-year-old repeat offenders of crimes ranging from petty theft and public intoxication to gambling, counterfeiting and racketeering. None of the individuals in the original documentary were ever convicted of a felony. Most were from the tri-state (
Connecticut ,New Jersey andNew York ) area and agreed to accept the experiment in lieu of jail time and/or probation/public service. The producers asked for a range of youth that came from poor inner-city neighborhoods to the affluent suburbs of New York City. Therecidivism rate of the original two casts was less than 10%. Of course, it must be remembered that the program was the brainchild of a film maker, not a psychiatrist specializing in the rehabilitation of felons; therefore, the focus was on whatever theatrical value could be obtained by filming a group of hulking inmates scaring relatively young teenagers.The original cast included a drug dealer and counterfeit document manufacturer from
Westchester County (Mikie C), a gang member fromJersey City (Jerome Watts), an arsonist and bomb builder from Bridgeport (Jon Shipiro), the son of a Mafia informant (Carlo Gallo), and a 17-year-oldchop shop parts dealer and car thief from theBronx (Jesus Rodriguez).Further reading
*citation | last =
United States Congress . House Committee on Education and Labor. Subcommittee on Human Resources | first = | authorlink = | coauthors = | title =Oversight on Scared Straight - Hearings Before the House Subcommittee on Human Resources, 96th Congress, 1st Session, June 4th | publisher =United States Government Printing Office | date =June 4 ,1979 | location =Washington, D.C. | page =356 of 380External links
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