Common Sense Media Review
By Melissa Camacho
,
based on child development research. How do we rate?
Prison docuseries offers teens a tough reality check.
Parents Need to Know
Why Age 15+?
Any Positive Content?
Where to Watch
Videos and Photos
Beyond Scared Straight
Parent and Kid Reviews
Based on 3 parent reviews
Based on 17 kid reviews
Kids say the program is both impactful and controversial, often described as traumatizing and exploitative, as it places teenagers in hostile environments filled with yelling and intimidation in order to deter future delinquency. While some viewers believe it offers necessary reality checks and educational insights about prison life, many criticize its methods as abusive rather than constructive, potentially causing stress and trauma instead of fostering positive change.
- impactful experience
- controversial methods
- educational insights
- potential trauma
- reality checks
Summarized with AI
Summarized with AI
What's the Story?
BEYOND SCARED STRAIGHT, a documentary series inspired by the award-winning film Scared Straight, follows troubled tweens and teens as they participate in intensive inmate-run intervention programs designed to keep them from ending up in prison. Cameras roll as teens spend a day at a maximum-security penitentiary, where they are confronted by hardened inmates, spend time in cells, and talk to convicts about the negative choices teens are making and where those choices will take them. At the end of each episode, viewers learn whether the experience has had a lasting and positive impact on the teenagers' lives.
Is It Any Good?
The series offers viewers a chance to see how inmate-run Scared Straight! programs from around the country use confrontation, information, and communication strategies to give adolescents a harsh reality check about what the real consequences will be if they continue to engage in behaviors like doing drugs, fighting, stealing, and other inappropriate and/or criminal activities. It also shows how even people behind bars can give back to their community.
The tough talking and unapologetically threatening behavior, violent images, and candid discussions about criminal activity featured here may be hard to take in, but it is offered within a very specific context. In the end, it shows how a disturbing but educational experience is being used in an attempt to change the lives of young people for the better.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about the Scared Straight! Program. Do you think programs like these really help kids make better choices? Why do you think inmates participate in these programs?
Documentaries often deal with difficult topics and inappropriate behaviors. Is offering details about things like underage drinking, violence, and drug use always necessary to make a point? Are there alternatives? If so, what are they?
TV Details
- Premiere date : January 13, 2011
- Network : A&E
- Genre : Reality TV
- TV rating :
- Last updated : October 9, 2025
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