Shark Bytes

The producers of this had their hearts in the right place--only problem, extensive research has shown that, not only do these programs not deter crime, they actually make it more likely that those who participate in such prgrams will go on to crime. In the words of the authority on the subject:

"We conclude that programmes like 'Scared Straight' are likely to have a harmful effect and increase delinquency relative to doing nothing at all to the same youths."

Too bad.

The dude with the eye patch scared me straight!!!

In 78 it was the first time i heard the F word on network TV.

This show was cool. And I loved seeing the punks put in their place.

BTW, it was james Scott thought fought from Rahway not Ernie Shavers.

The scariest thing about Scared Straight is that it takes place in a MEDIUM SECURITY facility.

I hate to think what a MAXIMUM SECURITY facility is like.

I don't think this show should be listed, since it was a one-time special and not a regular series. That said, it was a great program that gave us a hard-hitting look at how the convicts of Rahway State Prison used intimidation, their experiences, and real-life horror stories to stop juvenile delinquents and turn them around, not to mention how the show was allowed to run completely uncensored during a TV era when 8-9 PM was considered the "Family Hour". Also, kudos to UPN for their 1999 special "Scared Straight 20 Years Later" that caught up w/the kids and convicts from the original special...the way about 95% of the kids turned their lives around during that time (not to mention that most of the convicts, save for 2 still incarcerated and 3 dead, are now free men) is proof of just how well the SS program really works. And to the above poster, MTV had plans for a new Scared Straight special sometime in 99-00, but it apparently never got off the ground. Pity...

Two comments: the first is for the desensitizing of the f-word and to those who think this is a good thing---Do you really think this a good thing? Do you really think that emulating the ugliness of language in this documentary is a good thing for those of us not locked up in some penitentiary? Please, think about this long and hard. Second comment: the show itself----I saw this as a kid, and I was scared. Seeing this made me not want to live a life of crime. I did not want to be locked up in concrete cage with these men. Some thirty years later, when I let a minor traffic ticket lapse into an arrest warrant, I spent 14 hours in the county holding-pen. It was not the lifer-cage of this show, but subconsciously I remembered "Scared Straight". I remembered what I felt as a kid sitting in my cozy living room faaaaaaaaaaaaar away from what I saw on the TV screen. Two things kept me from loosing it: being 6' 3" and a whole lot of prayer. This show needs to be remade. They need to take some hardened little thugs, get them scared straight, and broadcast it. Maybe, hopefully and prayerfully, some kids would be scared out of any thought of a life of crime.

I saw this when I was about ten or eleven and was both shocked and mesmerized by the use of curse words on TV. Now I hear this language every day and became desensitized. It was great to see these big mouth "I don't take shit from anyone" white-ass suburban punks be put in their place by the real hardcore criminals. They just sat there scared shitless and took all the crap. One big mouth even handed over his sneakers and didn't do anything about it. One inmate got into another punks face and begged the punk to f**k with him while the idiot wisely kept his mouth shut. I remember the inmate saying he could kill anyone in the group and it wouldn't make any difference to him since he was already doing four life terms to begin with and a fifth wouldn't make a difference. Scary stuff. I particularly remember one badass that was sinister in a calm way rather than shouting like the rest. He looked one punk in the eye and said "If you ever wind up in here, and this goes for the rest of you, and I find out that any of you messed with my family or friends, I'll f'ning kill you. End of Story." I was peeing in my pants and I was only watching TV! I had nightmares about that guy for weeks. The only way it could have been better is if they threw some non-white kids into the mix.

when that big scary black prisoner made that little wise a$$ kid keep his hand in his (the prisoners) pocket and pace back and forth for the whole show. ha that was the funniest

Three words said it all "Rahway State Penitentiary". After seeing this show and watching the old Ernie Shavers (he was an inmate and they would not let him out to fight so they came to him) fights on Wide World of Sports, anyone who went into crime was going to go there anyway.

One of the greatest accomplishments in TV history. I happened upon this show the night it originally aired in the late 70s and my brother and I (two little white teenagers growing up in suburban New Jersey) watched the whole thing and were scared shitless. It reran many years later (when they gave an update on what happened to the kids) and I wisely taped it. It's still unbelievable. The part where they take the kids' sneakers sets the tone. My favorite sequence is when the crazy looking one-eyed hispanic guy starts off his piece by screaming "I'm here for murder, kidnapping, robbery, armed robbery, breakin' a dude's jaw and breakin' his mother-f**kin' girlfriend's both her goddamned legs! But f**k what's happenin' to me! It's what's happenin' to juveniles we're concerned about!"

I saw this show on TV at around age 13, and it indeed, scared the bejeezus out of me. I honestly give it credit for keeping me off a life path of crime (which was a real option at that time). I was/am a white USA suburbanite.

The f word all of a sudden becomes not so abnormal. After hearing the f word more times than in scarface, i realized "hey, it seems as common as saying the word 'ok' now"

This show never jumped the shark. I saw Scared Straight in class during high school, and my friends and I immediately went out and rented it to watch it again and again. Peter Falk is amazing, and remember "the language is plenty rough."

I know the target was "troubled youths", but this program really scared the shit out of every single white kid in the United States.