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- Scared Straight! is a documentary directed by Arnold Shapiro and released in 1978. Narrated by Peter Falk, the subject of the documentary is a group of cocky teenaged juvenile delinquents and the attempts to make them end their criminal ways by introducing them to actual convicts. Filmed at Rahway State Prison, a group of inmates known as the "lifers" berate, scream at, and terrify the young hoodlums and attempt to "scare them straight" (hence the film's title) by showing an ugly, harsh presentation of the realities of prison life. The documentary was shown on television in the late 1970s. It was aired uncensored and marked the first time that the word "fuck" was broadcast on many networks. The cast includes a drug dealer and counterfeit document manufacturer from Westchester County (Mikie C), a gang member from Jersey City (Jerome Watts), an arsonist and bomb builder from Bridgeport (Jon Shipiro), the son of a Mafia informant (Carlo Gallo), and a 17-year-old chop shop parts dealer and car thief from the Bronx (Jesus Rodriguez). At film's end, the teenagers say that they have decided that they don't want to end up in jail. The film ends with a "roll call" of the teens, revealing that most were "scared straight", though a few were said to have reoffended. The film won the Academy Award for Documentary Feature in 1978. It also won Emmy Awards for Outstanding Individual Achievement–Informational Program and Outstanding Informational Program. The original Scared Straight! was followed by Scared Straight! Another Story (1980), Scared Straight! 10 Years Later (1987), and Scared Straight! 20 Years Later (1999). The last sequel, hosted by Danny Glover, showed that the majority of the teens in the original program were, in fact, "scared straight" and went on to lead happy, productive lives. Teenagers in the 1978 and 1980 documentaries ranged from 15- to 19-year-old repeat offenders of crimes ranging from petty theft and public intoxication to gambling, counterfeiting, and racketeering. None of the individuals in the original documentary were ever convicted of a felony. Most were from the tri-state area and agreed to accept the experiment in lieu of jail time and/or probation/public service. The producers asked for a range of youth that came from poor inner-city neighborhoods to the affluent suburbs of New York City. The recidivism rate of the original two casts was less than 10%. As a result of the film, many states introduced "scared straight" programs in an attempt to rehabilitate young delinquents. The effectiveness of such programs has been questioned, most significantly by a non-peer reviewed meta-analysis report of seven such programs by Anthony Petrosino et al. (2002, updated 2003), which indicated that "scared straight" programs not only failed to deter crime, but actually led to more offending behavior. Of course, it must be remembered that the program was the brainchild of a film maker, not a psychiatrist specializing in the rehabilitation of felons; therefore, the focus was on whatever theatrical value could be obtained by filming a group of hulking inmates scaring relatively young teenagers. A brief parody of Scared Straight was included in the television series The Office in the 2006 episode entitled The Convict. Steve Carrell, playing office manager Michael Scott, performs as a character of his creation, named Prison Mike, who acts out a toned-down version of the type of speech given in the original Scared Straight. While uncredited as such, the performance is clearly based upon Scared Straight.
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