Cake15 First of all, I've known MANY people who have been in and out of prison. Like, big prison with murders and the like. This TV show portrays angry criminals being VERY inappropriate to minors. Threatening to rape them and beat them up. But wait, isn't threatening illegal? Yes it is but the officers allow it to happen because of the "scare factor". If they kids re-offend they are going to regardless. It's very ineffective. However, it's entertaining to watch when bored.

Patrici-hartigan1999 In scared straight, you will see a compilation of insulting, volgure, and quite frankly embarrassing behavior from "respectable officers", showing just how corrupt the police system is. If a normal person behaved this way to 10-16 year olds they would be locked away for years for disorderly conduct, verbal assault to a child, and assault to a minor. This shows real name should be "above the law, and can't be tamed." They use homosexual prisoners to tell the children how they should get in there cells and in addition threaten them sexually and the officers threaten to put them in calling them "fresh meat" and how they "like little boys". They give children who are in need of phsychiatric help a chance to be racist, homophobic, and have ptsd and an extreme fear of officers. They yell at there mom or act aggressive to anyone and they get to get scarred for life but yet people say it's not hard enough, let's just start beating them too. It's a viscouse cycle of aggression and fear with the people/children and police officers and government officials. This show will show you just how above the law you are if you're a cop.

jbohemier61 Beyond Scared Straight is an outstanding show in which troubled teens are sent to jails around the country to see what its going to be like should they find themselves on the inside. Scare tactics are often used, but the effectiveness, while positive on most, falls far short for others. Frankly, I would love to see this program extended in such a manner that these kids REALLY get a taste of jail life. I think by picking these kids up in front of their friends by the local Sheriff's Departments upon exit from school on a Friday afternoon and dropping them back off to school on the following Monday morning just before the start of classes would be far more effective then giving them a half day experience going from one section of the jail to another. Today's kids are some of the most disrespectful ever, and with parents working longer and longer hours while trying to make a living like never before, many of these at risk kids are failing to receive the attention they need during the riskiest time of their lives. Today's kids roll their eyes, look the other way, bad mouth their parents and teachers like never before. They truly need a rude awakening. I think this can only be done in the most severe cases by letting them spend a full weekend in jail, where they should be treated as close to an inmate as possible while protecting them from injury.

MJPhoenix711 This has to be the worst show I've ever seen. The main premise is innocuous: to try to keep kids from stealing and being in gangs by giving them a reality check. The way they ended up doing this was beyond offensive (which should be the real title of the show.) Instead of making the kids have heart to heart talks with prisoners about why they should change their behavior, they took them to the "alternative sexuality" ward and used gay and trans inmates as a boogeymen to scare kids out of going to prison. The guards often threatened the kids by telling them they would be raped (which is NEVER okay), and made derogatory comments about transgender inmates ("do you want to be in here with a man who wants to be a women?") I can't imagine how harmful this was to the teens in their program who happen to be gay, bi, and trans themselves (a percentage of them certainly are.) I was supposed to watch this show wanting the kids to turn their lives around and change their acts. Instead, I wanted to join the kids in punching out the oppressive prison guards and start a riot. If anyone needs to be taught a lesson, it is not the teens, it is the guards.