A Scared Straight program is a type of intervention program that attempts to deter at-risk youth from crime by exposing them to first-hand accounts of prison life. The treatment’s name comes from the 1978 movie “Scared Straight!”, which was based on the 1967 documentary of the same name.
Scared Straight programs are generally intended for at-risk youth, although they have been used with adult offenders as well. These programs typically involve bringing participants into prison, where they meet with people who have been incarcerated for different crimes. The participants are exposed to the realities of what it’s like behind bars and hear about the consequences of their actions.
The goal of these programs is to deter at-risk youth from committing crimes by showing them what happens if they do commit crimes. However, studies have found that these programs can actually increase criminal behavior among adolescents who participate in them.
Scared Straight Programs In Pa
In Pennsylvania, the Department of Corrections runs a “Scared Straight” program in which prisoners are brought into the juvenile facility and speak to the youth. The prison inmates tell the kids about life behind bars, including stories about violence and rape.
The goal is to scare them straight — as in, get them to stop committing crimes.
While some states have banned these types of programs due to concerns about their effectiveness, Pennsylvania is one of the few that still allows them.
But there are plenty of reasons why this type of program isn’t effective. Here are six:
- It’s unlikely that young people would ever commit a crime if they didn’t already have criminal intent.
- These programs don’t address underlying problems that can lead young people down a path toward crime, like poverty or mental illness.
- They don’t provide any kind of long-term support for those who need it most — young people who have committed low-level offenses or who have been arrested multiple times but never convicted of a crime.
