Why scared straight doesnt work

The American public knows about Amberly and Keandra because Scared Straight programs also make great television. More than 2 million people watched the episode, making it one of the most popular cable television shows that night. This finding is not even new—repeated studies carried out since the s show that Scared Straight programs have no positive effect.

In fact, a paper published by the Campbell Collaboration summarizing the results of nine studies concluded these programs lead to greater offending behavior.

Studies estimate that costs to victims of crime are even greater than those to government. Even if government agencies had spare cash, it would be irresponsible for them to invest in a program that does more harm than good. But with budgets tight it is more important than ever that agencies focus resources on programs that actually work.

But if it attracts lots of viewers, I know why they choose to do so. Did you not understand the article? You are absolutely right that there needs to be something out there to help these kids before they turn to crime; a job, career help, sports programs, an after-school program, counseling and other work can be done. Having someone scream in their face and push them around for a few days will not likely be a change from their home life anyways. Judge, you and the Professor are so breathtakingly ignorant that it is ludicrous.

Because that is all they know, especially in families where the older family members are all inmates. Gang members, murderers, etc.

Yes, it is sad and pathetic. They want to see someone that means something in the community for whatever reason tell them the truth about incarceration. And you see it every week in the older convicts who tell heartbreaking stories about how no one bothered with them. Jobs mean nothing-family counseling means nothing. That is just nonsense. When they see these older cons, the ones that have no hope, they know…why cuz that was me. I appreciate you bringing this to the attention of others.

Hopefully having someone of your stature will help counter-balance the message of this programming. Sources: www. As a digital subscriber to Prison Legal News, you can access full text and downloads for this and other premium content. Subscribe today. One study found that juvenile offenders have post-traumatic stress disorder at a rate comparable to Iraq War veterans. Might that explain why scared straight doesn't work, because it attempts to treat trauma with more potential trauma?

For whatever reason, and I don't know what the mechanism is, when we try to get harsher, it seems to backfire. We did a systematic review in , looking at studies in which kids were either diverted from the [juvenile justice] system or officially processed through [it]. It's uncanny that in those 27 to 29 experiments, kids who were diverted out of the system did much better if they got services versus going through the formal juvenile court process.

The kids who got nothing, diverted to go home to their parents with no treatment, even did slightly better than those who went through the formal juvenile court! That's amazing, because then it's a helluva lot cheaper to just send the kid home rather than process them.

That's a cost savings for juvenile justice authorities; to be able to divert more kids out instead of putting through them a formal process. Even on the adult side, people studied the length of prison terms and found a negative impact: the people getting the longer sentences, all things being equal, are doing worse when they get out than people who get lesser sentences.

There's kind of a pattern of results which I think for the most part people are feeling now; even Democrats and Republicans are coalescing around this idea that we're punishing too many people, especially nonviolent people, too harshly. The Democrats are saying it's unfair, and the Republicans are saying it's too costly.

They're [both supporting] adult and juvenile justice reform for the first time that I can remember in my lifetime. Follow Bill Kilby on Twitter.

Sign In Create Account. This story is over 5 years old. There's enough evidence to say, definitively, that "scared straight" programs don't stop young people from going on to become criminals, and might even be counterproductive. So why are they still in use?