Scared Straight?

What do you do with juvenile delinquents? Counsel 'em? Jail 'em? "Scared Straight" was a 1978 film documenting a program in which kids guilty ofminor offenses were brought to a maximum-security prison, where hardened convicts attempted to frighten them away from lives of crime.

The show took place in Rahway State Prison in New Jersey - that huge fortress visible from Routes 1 and 9 near the Woodbridge Mall which Bruce Springsteen mentioned in "Born in the USA." ("Down in the shadow of the penitentury / by the gas fires of the refinery...") Here kids who thought they were tough were confronted with the rude realities of prison by lifers who screamed at them. To a nation which was getting tired of 60s era excuses for criminal behavior, the program made a hellova lotta sense.

Peter Falk, star of the "Columbo" TV series, narrated the film, which
became quite popular. Soon "Scared Straight" programs were starting all
over the country, although many communities thought they could scrimp on
the actual prison visit and change kids by just showing them a movie. In a
sense, the SS movement was emblematic of the changing attitude of the
public towards crime and punishment which happened in the latter part of
the Seventies.

Initially the philosophy of Scared Straight was praised, as its advocates
cited the fact that most of the kids in the initial program did not become
criminals. Soon, however, criminologists were pointing out that none of the
teens in the film had been convicted of a felony, and the majority of them
would have ended up straight in the first place. Other researchers believed
the program was actually worse than doing nothing. My take? I doubt if many
kids really intent on becoming crooks would be deterred by such a project,
intense though it may be. The brutality of prison life is common knowledge;
it's not as if these kids thought it was a country club. Everyone knows
that teenagers are convinced that they will never face the real
consequences of bad behavior, be it smoking or driving while drunk. I
worked briefly at a literacy program run for tough kids, and do you know
what their favorite books were? Right, prison stories.