Preview

Beyond Scared Straight And Lifetime's Teen Trouble

Satisfactory Essays
Open Document
Open Document
139 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Beyond Scared Straight And Lifetime's Teen Trouble
Prison is not a fun place to be and showing kids exactly just that with a real inmate in their face would give them a reality check really quick. Terrifying teens by making them lie in coffins, forcing them to spend a night on a frigid street or a bare prison cell— these harsh measures are used in reality shows in an attempt to put delinquents back on the straight and narrow. But the strategies may make for better TV than treatment. On A&E’s Beyond Scared Straight and Lifetime’s Teen Trouble, producers document some extreme methods to address adolescents who act out. The shows intend to educate while entertaining, and some of the tough love strategies certainly make for riveting TV. But unfortunately, decades of research show that such extreme

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Incarceration Effects

    • 858 Words
    • 4 Pages

    returns home after being released from incarceration. This is important because in the home, the use of physical punishment is associated with numerous negative outcomes for children (Mustaine, Tewksbury, 2). These negative outcomes can include behavioral problems, impairment of cognitive performance, an increase in use of violence, and an increase in mental health problems both during childhood and adulthood (Mustaine, Tewksbury, 2). The negative consequences for children such as an increase in violence, behavioral problems, and an impairment in cognitive performance are major factors that contribute to later criminal justice involvement. Mustaine and Tewksbury focused on the ways that the incarceration of fathers might lead to the use of…

    • 858 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    When a child is arrested for a crime and let out of jail, the likely hood of them repeating the crime is high. The state of Missouri created the Missouri juvenile system, which helped kids in a different way. Instead of being sentenced to jail, teenagers benefit from staying in a group home. Unlike juvenile corrections, these group homes are not surrounded by barbed wire that would make them feel trapped inside. The homes are styled like cottages, with ten youths and two adults living in each one. The children undergo counseling and therapy. This helps them deal with their aggression and teaches them how to deal with their rough behaviors. If someone becomes rough, others are taught to help talk the person down from acting out in anger. “If…

    • 222 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    At the age of twenty, most are still learning to grow up and figure their lives out. But what they don’t expect, is to spend the next twenty- one years of their life on death row. Unfortunately, this was the reality for Nick Yarris. Based on his novel, “The Fear of 13”, is a documentary which tells the chilling story of Yarris’s life and the mistreatment he faced against the Pennsylvania Prison (2015). Yarris spent two decades on death row, on the charges of the abduction, rape and murder of Linda Mae Craig, a woman he had never met (The Fear of 13 2015). This documentary shows how the labelling theory and low self-control theory can perpetuate deviant behaviour. And Nick Yarris’s story is the reality that continues to haunt the American justice system.…

    • 828 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The reader will hear from current and former prisoners’ that explain their experiences. They discuss behavior, trouble they encountered, and their state of mind when they were free in society before heading down the wrong path. Their testimony is to educate readers on how…

    • 188 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Adult prisons and jails are not constructed with adolescents in mind, and they do not satisfy the needs of juveniles. Officers of juvenile detention centers are properly trained to deal with the specific needs of teenagers. These centers are equipped with workshops, therapy, family services, education, etc. Dana Liebelson, a Huffington Post reporter, wrote that “Staff in juvenile facilities are more likely to be trained to deal with teens. And after they were released, those who had served in the adult system were 77% more likely to be arrested for a violent felony than those who were sent to juvenile institutions.” (Liebelson) Furthermore, according to the Equal Justice Initiative, adolescence that are in adult prisons face increased risks…

    • 237 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    More than twenty years ago, youth violence reached an all-time high and America lost faith in its youth. Legislators across the United States responded to the crime spike by lowering the minimum age to be tried as an adult. Rehabilitation in juvenile facilities was no longer a valid option for violent offenders. Locking up these vicious criminals was the only reasonable alternative. However, harsher laws do not lower the crime rate, sending these children to prison does nothing to benefit society. It merely teaches youths to become better criminals and takes millions of dollars out of the taxpayers’ pockets. Juveniles should not be forced to face the harsh reality of adult criminal court and prison, but should be tried and sentenced as juveniles.…

    • 1266 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The media is at it again, hyping up stories about our youth, from school shootings, children gone missing, to teenage gambling, the media is trying to reinforce fears that there is an epidemic of youth violence. I believe that Glassner puts this in hi book to make us think about how much we watch on television is one hundred percent correct or if the media is putting false information to keep us scared. This makes you think, because you never really know what a child is going to do, but on the other hand you never really know what an adult will do either. Are we more interested in our youth then in the adults? Glassner puts a quote from Bob Dole that says" we must shift the focus on the juvenile justice system from rehabilitation to punishment" (Glassner 72). Glassner writes "Ignoring the fact that many juveniles serve longer sentences than adults for the same crimes, and that many juvenile facilities, grossly overcrowded and understaffed, provide rehabilitation services in name only" (Glassner 72). I believe that Glassner is trying to paint a picture to the readers that changing rehabilitation to punishment is not the answer, that maybe fixing the juvenile detention centers might work better. Glassner goes on saying that $30,000 or more per youth per year with over 100,000 youths behind bars on almost every day, the prison industrial complex is making money so they want to make sentences longer (Glassner 72). Getting back to the media, they thrive on youth violence. A very good example of this is the Columbine shooting, they showed the images over and over again to never let us forget what is in this world. Glassner states the 48% of all reports on children from CBS, ABC and NBC concerned with violence and crime and only 4% concerned or children's health, well being and economic issues (Glassner 72). Children should be worrying…

    • 954 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    A program such as Scared Straight puts together organized visits to prisons and jails. This is programed toward juvenile’s or children that have been in trouble in are at-risk for becoming delinquents. Human awareness programs like Scared Straight became popular crime prevention strategies during the 1970s. These policies on getting tough on our kids have wide public and political appeal. It is quoted in many articles and…

    • 512 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Scared Straight Analysis

    • 718 Words
    • 3 Pages

    However, the overall program ( not the TV show) statistics showed that out of 384 participants only 57 went on to a life of crime and another group of 300 had an 80% turn around (Shapiro, 1978). The program even proved beneficial to a hand full of inmates, that felt like they had made a difference and were proud of that. Was it because it was a TV show that the outcome was greated than the current programs used today? Did the participants receive follow up services, or the simple fact that they knew a TV producer would be checking in with them 10, 20 years later, was the main factor for changing their behavior? The entertainment industry went on to remake scared straight into a reality TV show in 2011-2015 also showcasing how this diversion program works for troubled teens. In the first episode, it showed girls who have been in trouble with the law or just plain rebellious, each partaking in a list of status offences. One girl (Cecilia) even saw her incarcerated mother at the facility while taking the tour. Most of the girls had the attitude that “we are not horrible, and not out killing people” and definitely not like these women in prison” (Beyond Scared Straight episode 1…

    • 718 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    As mention before, the U.S. has more youths in residential facilities than any other country in the world, still some say we should invoke tougher policies or run juvenile courts more like adults courts. However, these types of measures only tend to exacerbate the condition, hence the overcrowding. It may seem intuitive to lockup juvenile delinquents. However, it turns out that these juvenile residential facilities make excellent training ground for youths who contemplating a life of crime. The most reasonably approach would be to attack the underlying causes of delinquency, such as poverty, unemployment, discrimination and the dysfunctionality of…

    • 542 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Placing a juvenile into a secure facility is not advantageous to the juvenile and has nor proven to be to be beneficial to society either. Statistics show that almost half of the juveniles in custody have not committed a violent crime or one that was against another person (Elrod & Ryder, 1999). Secure facilities resemble prisons where offenders are locked down and kept away from the public, but provide no real systematic approach for helping the juvenile down a path that will lead them to being a successful member of society. Secure facilities also have a growing problem with violence within their walls and escapes attempted. Although the majority of the juveniles who are incarcerated in a facility came in for a non-violent reason, the method…

    • 637 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Supermax Prisons

    • 1519 Words
    • 7 Pages

    Due to increasing crime rates and the extensive belief that rehabilitative programs for inmates do not work, a new and harsher method for prisons is being utilized. Instead of scattering the worst criminals, they are being consolidated into Supermax prisons. Supermax prisons are state of the art penitentiaries meant to hold only the worst of the worst criminals and inmates that cannot be trusted in regular prisons. There are strict regulations and policies to control inmates’ time for communication, recreation, visiting, religious practices, and education even more than regular prisons. More often than not, “inmates in supermax prisons spend 23 hours of every day locked in a small cell” (Hickey pg. 160). Supermax prisons work upon the premise that the most violent and disorderly inmates can be better controlled “by separation, restricted movement, and limited access to staff and other inmates” (Hickey pg. 167). While supermax prisons are believed to reduce crime and increase safety, there are questions of whether or not this is actually the case.…

    • 1519 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Politicians feel that best and easiest solution is to simply lock up youth offenders for long periods of time, and ignore rehabilitation. Most studies demonstrate that putting young offenders in adult prisons leads to more crime, higher prison costs, and increased violence (Cooper, 1997). Yet, we are spending more and more on corrections, and less on prevention efforts. Some states spend more on corrections than they do on higher education. The cost of keeping juveniles in prison as compared to putting them into rehabilitation programs is astronomically higher. The Average cost of incarcerating a juvenile for one year is between $35,000 to $64,000. However, the average cost of an intervention program is $4,300 per child a year (Crary, 2000). Also the effectiveness of prisons to…

    • 2039 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Juveniles Tried as Adults

    • 455 Words
    • 2 Pages

    The new arise of teens being put on trial as adults, challenges social science theories, because teens are most likely to become more criminalistics when incarcerated in an adult system. Greg Joltics who wrote the article “Trying Teens” explains how an adolescent’s brain and behavior undergoes change. How is it that a fourteen year old boy just so happens to shoot his father in the head after a beating for misbehaving? This is evidence of uncontrollably impulse control (something kids undergo through adolescents years). It is very doubtful that teen would manically kill his own loving father without any reason behind it. Most young minds cannot articulate right and wrong decisions during a threating and fast paced situation… Evidence shows.…

    • 455 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Incarcerated Parents Essay

    • 1375 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Can you imagine a child being miles and miles away from their parents for days, weeks, months, or even years on end? A child in this circumstance is left wondering if their parent is safe and when they will see them again. Studies have shown that having an incarcerated parent can have negative effects on a child throughout their lifetime. Murray & Sekol wrote about numerous study results that included, “7,374 children with incarcerated parents and 37,325 comparison children …showed that parental incarceration is associated with higher risk for children's antisocial behavior, but not for mental health problems” (Murray & Sekol, 2012, p. 175). The population of incarcerated individuals in the United States is constantly climbing, so it is imperative that the child welfare system implements more proactive ways to encourage family connections between incarcerated individuals and their children. By examining evidence of the impact on children of incarcerated parents, I propose the best means of promoting healthy relationships and bringing awareness to the issue is by hosting a YouTube Live Campaign and promoting support groups.…

    • 1375 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays