Scared Straight!/Nightmare Fuel


 * The sheer amount of Adult Fear this documentary for parental viewers. These are seventeen kids who have been arrested for petty crimes, going to a real prison facility as part of their last chance to redeem themselves, spending time in an auditorium with inmates who have been sentenced to life in prison for worse crimes. Many of the lifers, including the well-known Ali, are unpredictable in their behavior, insulting, threatening and coming close to even physically harming the kids to prove their point. Granted it's all to scare them out of future crimes, but since no one had seen a program like this before, it comes as a shock and a surprise -- especially to parents who are equally worried about their own kids' potential for juvenile delinquency.
 * During their tour of the prison, the kids are first met with shouting and cheers from prisoners locked up in their own cells. All of them are shouting threats and lewd comments at them and  threatening to rape them in prison.  Whether they were part of the program or not is unknown, but it establishes the danger prison life can be for those kids. The tour ends with the kids separated into groups and placed in prison cells. Unlike modern prison systems, the ones in the 70s looked more like a grungy dungeon than a prison, with rust and mould all over the walls and even in the toilet, giving these kids a clear view of what their next years will be if they aren't careful.
 * While it was kind of hard to see, due to the low lighting in the auditorium, one of the Lifer's, Ali showed the kids his missing eye. Which he lost from being out numbered in a prison fight. He wasn't subtle about it either. He went up to one of the kid's faces so they'd get a close look. Lifted his eyebrow and eyelid and showed the empty socket. In the 1999 follow up Scared Straight! 20 Years Later, we get to see said missing eye in a better view, when Ali is being interviewed post-release.  His eyelid completely sunken into his socket.


 * Back to