“Beyond Scared Straight”- Keeping Teens out of Prison the Hard Way

There is a new series on A&E called “Beyond Scared Straight”.  I was sent a screener copy of the new series to check out.  I tell you what.  If you have a trouble making teen, I would totally sign them up to go on this show.  Heck, I was scared!

Each 60-minute episode of “Beyond Scared Straight” will visit a different prison program in the U.S.  The episodes will follow about a half-dozen at-risk teens and pre-teens.  I was shocked at how rotten some of these kids were.  No respect for authority or any adult for that matter.  Some of these kids obviously were lacking in any sort of education.  I just couldn’t believe it.

The episodes will follow them as they attend the program which is one day in prison.  At the end of each episode they show a follow up with teens one-month later to see if they have changed or continued on with their rotten ways.

In the premiere episode that I watched they had 5 at-risk teenaged girls.  Some of them weren’t so bad, kind of like they were trying to be cool and just getting trouble for things like shop lifting and fighting.  But then there were girls that were like 13 that were already having sex and using drugs.  Being a mom to all girls this scared the crap out of me!

Parents should never think twice about getting their teenage son or daughter into drug rehab programs if they discover him or her to be abusing drugs.

Leanna, 13, is a preacher’s daughter who loves shoplifting, drugs and alcohol. Pricilla, 15, boasts of having had more than 20 fights and was expelled for threatening to burn her school down. Cecilia, 13, smokes marijuana, drinks regularly and talks proudly about her association with a gang. Cecilia’s best friend, Desirey, smokes, drink, shoplifts and associate with gangs. Emily, 17, who is abusive toward her mother, has an explosive attitude that she fuels with excessive drinking and drugs.

They took the girls to Valley State Prison for Women in Chowchilla, CA. where they spent the day with inmates.  Not just regular inmates…I’m talking scary man looking woman inmates.  Dude, they were SCARY!  If they can’t convince the inmates that they will make a change in their lives, well then they’re going to have to spend another 72 hours in the prison!

I think the show is cool.  I wish they could tone some of it down a bit to show to a younger audience.  I would love to let Morgan see how these kids are, but I think the show would be too much for her age.  It’s a great idea and I hope it cleans up some kids enough to live a good productive life.

You can catch “Beyond Scared Straight” on A&E,  click here to watch the full first episode!

NEW EPISODE

  • Jessup
  • Thursday, January 20, 10/9C

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Comments

  1. Lori says:

    HI! Trisha D sent me to see you! What a great blog! I am a Texas blogger too! Please come see me at http://www.adayinmotherhood.com!

    Thanks,

    Lori

  2. Lauralee Hensley says:

    When I was growing up, my older brother and a few of his friends snuck out of the house one night and meet up. They stole a car and went joyriding. Then they were stupid, they started following a cop car in another town thinking they’d scare the cop. They didn’t. They followed the cop car into a gas station that was already closed, because it was like 3 am. Anyways, now they are surrounded by cop cars that came in from every direction. Guess the boys thought since it was a really small town that there was only one cop on duty at night. They were wrong.
    So about 4 am I hear our telephone ringing. No one is answering it, so I get up out of bed. I’m was about twelve years old I think. Anyways the man’s voice said “This is the ____________ Police Department.” I didn’t put the name of the town. Then wanted to speak to either my mom or dad. So I went and gently tapped on my parents bedroom door. Thankfully my mom woke up. She closed the bedroom door behind her.
    I motioned for her to come into the kitchen where the phone was and I told her.
    She got off the phone mad as a hornets nest. She told me what my brother had done. Then I had to honestly say I had thought I’d heard him sneek out about 11pm. Wrong thing to say because that got her mad at me for not ratting him out.
    Anyways she said she was going to get him. Not to wake Dad up. She borrowed some of my clothes to wear. My mom was tiny, so my clothes at twelve fit her just fine.
    She got home about 10 minutes before my Dad’s alarm went off, the one that woke him up for work. She told us not to say anything to my Dad and not to my sister’s either. So I didn’t.
    Later that day the preacher from our church called. Some of the boys were all from the same church. Guess the preacher knew what happened from one of the parents that called him.
    He set up a scared straight thing with a prison one town away.
    It turned all the boys around except for one. The one boy that it didn’t turn around ended up raping a woman, breaking in houses etc.., he ended up in prison more than once. He eventually committed suicide.
    It was sad, for him. But, the none of the other boys ever got in trouble again.

    • Brandy says:

      Atleast some of them straightened up! I think we all go through some testing rebel type stuff. Some of us do it once, some til they get caught and others just can’t seem to stop. I was a pretty good kid I think. I wasn’t perfect, but I always thought about the consequences of an action before I did it.

  3. Pam L. says:

    WOW, is all I can say about that show. Diablo scared me straight and I am 52 and boring. However it is a good show for trouble teens to see some of the reality of prison life. Just like 16 and pregnant show, I am glad the show focuses on reality and not fairy tail happy endings.

  4. katie says:

    I just saw this show last night for the first time, and I think I will be letting my “tween” son watch it. He is a really good boy and I want to keep it that way!
    katie´s last [type] ..This is What Happens When You Punish A Child

  5. Sara yarbrough says:

    Does anyone know how or where any of these programs are? I know of a few kids who need this badly. If you do please let me know how I can get in contact and get these kids signed up!!

  6. kimmy says:

    i have a teen who i cant bare to deal with anymore ,who is smart at the mouth and who dont want to go school and thinks she is to good to part take in thing ,to sum it up she is lazy.look i have done the taking away of things and the but stinging and nothing works it has gotten so deep to where she has even raised her hand at me and i tried to beat the heck out of her and she acts as if that didnt faze her, so if there someone who can help me please email me at kimbutbut@aol.com i need help before she ends up like her friends with babies and out of school,then there is the system who swears that if you beat thier buts that its abuse but what about us as parents who get abuse from them and the killing part about this is my other 4 didnt do me this way they were not perfect but they respected me and dared not to ralk back to me but htis one she is ignoran ,disrespectful ad lazy and stays in the mirror like she is the one ,she dont want to xlean up her room ,and at this point i cant do much due to i am diabled in my arms and had surgery so she really tries to get over on me . p.s. please someone give me an answer to this delima

  7. Former Child Protective Services Specialist says:

    I worked for a government agency who held children who were no longer allowed to stay in their home. (Schoool or Home Truancy, Abusing other children in the home, underage drinking, drugs, sex, etc.) I will never forget the case I had with two teens who were pregnant. I was given the task of determining if either of the two teens where ‘likely’ to become good parents when they turned adults. As these teens gave birth & were placed with new homes (family members or foster homes) the governmental obligation to society was to determine if the infant would be best placed with the teen parent or with a seperate family. In this case, one went with the teen & one did not! I wish more pregnant teens realized that if they choose to not behave legally or in the best interest of their child/unborn child that they also give up the opportunity to choose who raises their children!

  8. Claire says:

    haha like if i had to go to one of those beyond scared straight i would not fucking care for shit lmao they may look scary and yell at you but fuck that shit im not letting someone do that to me hahaha!!! no fucking way…..i will yell back at those cops and when there right in my face ill push there face away and see what they do now;)
    …and if they take me to one of those prison people i will say shit to them straight back and if they tell me to hit them ill fucking hit them like as iffffff but if one of those in mates or cops hit me ill hurt them so hard they’ll be begging for mercy ;) ….besides my mom wouldn’t ever put me or let anyone put me in that place …

    • Brandy says:

      Wow Claire, you have quite the mouth on you. Funny thing is, the kids (or people in general for that matter) that run their mouths like you are usually the first to turn tail and run when confronted by someone.

      Maybe your mama wouldn’t send you there…but it reads like she needs to probably send you to school. Your spelling is horrendous….

      Sounds like you have a bright future ahead of you….

  9. Oh lord, I hope this kid stays in school. What an idiot.
    Rebel Chick Jenn´s last [type] ..Johnny English Reborn Movie Pack & Fandango Cash #Giveaway

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