Beyond Scared Straight is on right now. WOW a wake up call for so many

[demtenjeep]

I wish this intervention was something we could do for all of our at risk students. I don't think we would have so many children go down the wrong road if they really know how it was.

I see so many kids think the life full of gangs and crimes is so special, they can't wait to attain status. It really breaks my heart.

[speltwon]

1. In my state, part of the reality is that juvenile booking

detention center is like a frigging hospital. Pretty nice. And they call the kids "clients" they don't even refer to them as "defendant" or "suspect" or "inmate". Kids think "no big deal", but the Big Boy Jail is waaaaay worse.

[demtenjeep]

2. last hour was for girls, this hour is the boys in South Carolina

I really wish kids knew how reality really was!!!

[zeemike]

3. Well they do.

They see it 4 to 8 hours a day on the TV....to them real life is excitiong....lots of explosions and car chases and people killing one another....every day they see this...what else can the think?

[Cid_B]

4. I am bummed...

Got to see about 15 minutes then had to go to the airport.. for a delayed flight so I missed it for nothing.

Last bit I saw was some girl going in to get scared and running into her mother who was already incarcerated...

[AlabamaLibrul]

5. Stuff like this is such crap. I once had to participate because I was late one too many times

walking myself to school. And I'm talking like five minutes late, five times in a year.

And I was on the honor roll. It was mandatory.

[proud2BlibKansan]

6. The kids on this show are not honor students or tardy to school

Most are into pretty serious criminal activity.

[proud2BlibKansan]

7. I've been watching it since it first came on

Some of those kids need a serious wake up call.

[LoZoccolo]

8. I saw the original and find it appalling.

In it, you see the inmates make physical threats against minors, as well as unwelcome and demeaning sexual solicitations. Those are crimes, and in the context of the program they were state-sanctioned crimes. What is the sense in our penal system telling an inmate that he has permission to tell a bunch of minors how much that he wants to rape them? Or how he is going to bite someone's nose off? I saw this in the original 1978 version. These things are against the law, and the fact that they occur within our system of justice is a failure of that system, but they just flaunt it as a feature of that system. They just cast their own failure to control the prison population as par for the course.

[AlabamaLibrul]

9. You're not missing much with this one. Kids are there for smoking weed and being told

about all they're going to be forced to do once they're in prison, because, after all, "I just made you carry my tray."

I'm with you on this one. :fistbump:

[mrcheerful]

12. Also you can not scare any kid into law abiding citizenship with these kind of tactics

mainly because of the human failing that is called the ego, sure after the experience the kid goes crying to mama, but sooner or later the kid, ( adults too ) tells himself that he is smarter then all those locked up were. Then because of the justice system not wanting to put first time offenders behind bars, they get probation which then gets them to believing that they got away with something because they didn't get locked up.

All shows like this do is continue the prison myth but not once addresses the real problem, being poor without a way out. Education, sure then reality hits, mom or dad get sick or get laid off and kid finds himself having to find work but because he is under age without high school education he can't get work so easy answer sell street drugs. Service jobs don't pay enough for them to buy a dream car, so they get stuck with a used car that eats up what little money the service job pays to keep it running, gas to get back and forth eats their pay up, selling drugs while dodging gangs and police pays very well even if its risky.

This is what drives most kids, they are not stupid having watched mom, dad, grand pa and grand ma playing by the rules and still not getting ahead. So now some nice well to do person comes into their lives runs a speech at them, then takes them to a prison and says see you won't like it here and so kid decides he will be a law abiding citizen, yeah right. Might work on a golden spoon child but for the plastic spoon crowd that lives in hell holes it is a joke.

[woo me with science]

25. Thank you.

These programs are disgusting and a waste of resources.

[Obamanaut]

21. I agree with everything you said in this response. nt

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

22. Perhaps explicit threats of sodomy are the only thing that will reach Billy Badass

If he imagines prison to be lifting weights and waving gang signs across the yard only to come out of jail gang royalty. Introducing sodomy just might adjust Billy Badass and his cost-benefit analysis.

[Toucano]

23. +1

It's been so effective, too.

[demtenjeep]

10. some kids need to see it for what it really is

I have met kids who have family in prison and they think it is glamorous

I don't want them to end up in prison or worse. If something like this can stop them.....

[emilyg]

11. Even if it only stops a handful - well worth it.

[jwirr]

13. I was living on a rural reservation when these interventions first started

happening. The kids - friends of my children sat in my living room to watch and discuss it. No one was using it in our area at that time but I and a probation officer wanted the kids to see it and be able to talk about it. It was a good night and from then on the kids understood where I was coming when I interacted in their lives.

On the other hand my sister who taught a class of 14 boys who were on their last chance in school actually took their kids to the prison to participate. Several children had relatives who were going to be talking and it was one of the greatest teaching experiences she had ever had. I haven't talked to her about what she thinks the long term effect for them was but she would know because most of them are still in contact with her.

I also think it was good for the prisoners. They felt they were helping those kids.

[AlabamaLibrul]

14. Or, the prisoners like it because they're allowed to do anything they want short of actual rape

or shanking, and don't have to worry about retaliation.

Anyone else doing what they did would be considered illegal. Assault, terroristic threats, and so on.

[jwirr]

16. You are entitled to you opinion. The kids in my sisters class were one

step away from ending up in that prison. They needed to see plainly where they were heading. As to the kids on the rez. I still live out here and of that group none ended up in jail for anything more that a dwi which is a whole other problem on this rez. I think it probably depends on how the situation is handled.

Prior to going into the prison the teachers and counselors were prepared to handle the fear and grief the kids would be feeling and relatives often spoke to the teachers about their family member. I remember her telling me about the sound of the prison doors closing after you. I also experienced that when I visited a friend in prison. Yes they use the emotional but these were not innocent young kids - these 14 children were street kids long used to facing the truth.

[demtenjeep]

18. they are not alone with the kids. There are guards and cameras all around

the kids are NOT in danger of losing anything but attitude

[AlabamaLibrul]

19. I don't dispute the guards, cameras, or being alone with the kids.

The danger aspect is arguable, given what happens in prison all the time with guards and cameras. Some little shithead comes in to the place where you live, and takes it one step too far...

[Obamanaut]

20. I knew an inmate who got a sharpened pencil stuck into his neck. It

took less than two seconds.

There is always the element of danger.

I was a guard for seven years, followed by special ed teacher aide (in the prison education department) for two more.

[AlabamaLibrul]

15. "You gotta wait here, and you gotta HOPE the doctor comes" must be nice n/t

[demtenjeep]

17. Your life is worth more than jail is the central theme the prisoners are stressing

I think it is a good message.

They are also pairing an inmate with a troubled teen and try to match up situations so they can show similarities in life and how the choices you make can make a difference.

[JonLP24]

24. At least one study found

programs like that are ineffective and actually more harmful than good.

http://web.archive.org/web/20070927013116/http://www.campbellcollaboration.org/doc-pdf/ssrupdt.pdf

[woo me with science]

26. Yup.

There's a good post upthread about why.