Scared Straight!

I first saw this nearly five years ago as a high school freshman, in health class. The experience was absolutely riveting, and as has already been pointed out, there's a brutal honesty in this film that simply doesn't come from a screenplay.

While this film is over two decades old, that in no way lessens its impact. With talk-shows now blindly bombarding us with images of indignant, lawless teenagers and trying to dispel the situation with pop psychologists and boot camps, the "Scared Straight!" program looks all the more effective.

This is definitely not one to miss.

There is no denying that this documentary is really engaging, if only in a perverse sort of way. The grating, in-your-face approach was certainly ahead of its time and the ultimate message--however closely orchestrated and exaggerated--cannot be mistaken. It's interesting to note how we are assaulted with "good" here, rather than being assaulted with "evil", how we , as passive viewers, are pushed and pulled by the film without our own volition. We are "turned out" by the convicts and walk away broken but wiser. That said, the film reminds me somewhat of "Reefer Madness" and other such pieces of propaganda that force the audience into an ostensibly "real" hell-hole in an effort to scare us straight. Here we have a more street-wise but equally paranoid attempt to pummel at-risk kids with sordid tales that will lead them away from a life of crime. The kids in the film, although shown to be the focus of the warnings--the very center of attention, are really nothing more than supporting actors-- players, not recipients, of the message which borders on outright propaganda. The real audience is comprised of slightly rowdy and/or delinquent middle class kids who both are both fearful of and fascinated by deviant actions. For them, watching this film is equivalent to "slumming". It's "real" only in a very mediated way. With that in mind, it's arguable that this film's shock tactics do more to entertain than to instruct. Thus, on a fictional level the film is wonderful, but if we're looking for gritty cinema verite that just happens to coincide with governmental policies we will be disappointed.

In order to get a young teen with a long history of crime and committed to a continued future in that area to completely turn around and choose to "go straight"--all within a time frame of under three hours--you know such a transformation must be very powerful, if not miraculous.

What could possibly take place within so short a time to prompt 16 out of 17 young subjects kick their criminal habits, without a hand being laid on them? Hypnotism? Some form of brain-washing technique? An invisible laser- wave bombardment?

Actually, none of these, only words . . . powerful phrases spoken often at maximum volume by volunteers from a maximum security cell block of the Rahway State Prison in New Jersey.

Without laying a hand their subjects, "hardened" convicts serving 30 year to life sentences, share the truth about prison life in harsh, gross details, leaving nothing to the imagination.

In a demonstration of emotional response, the youths are ordered to remove their shoes, which are pitched into a center pile. A volounteer inquires how the group feels when robbed of their possessions, pointing out that that's also how their robbery victims feel.

The manner in which the documentary is presented positions the viewer as a intimate participant in this moving exercise. One can feel the emotional intensity of the experience, as volunteers expose some of the terror of prison life which awaits these potential inmates.

It's not an easy experience to sit through, and the uncensored language may be too harsh or harrowing for some viewers. Too, the 50-minute documentary may seem much longer, because on the intensity of the subject.

However, the statistical 90% success-rate of this "scare-tactic" program is astounding. The volunteers benefit from their doing something constructive in helping to turn young lives around. The youths benefit from their changed attitude and altered life choices.

Academy Award Winner of Best Documentary in 1978, this Arnold Shapiro written and directed short, now on VHS, remains as chillingly compelling today as when first shown. Rahway is a model for similar potential programs across the country. The public is indebted to the gifts of these volunteers, who are completely in charge of creating and running this unique "scared-straight" program. Peter Falk is the effective narrator.

A documentary that you will never forget once you see it, Scared Straight ought to be required viewing in every high school. As narrator Peter Falk points outs at the being of the film, it at first seems too good to be true that three hours in prison will make young trouble makers change their ways, but the subsequent prison visit shows that it is possible to change young lives in such a short time. The confrontation between the inmates and kids is riveting; you hang on to every word, and feel the tension in the room even while watching it on video. The change in the kids sent on the prison visit is astonishing, as shown in the interviews taped before and after the trip to Rahway. Before the trip, the kids all brag about their crimes and think they will never get caught; the interviews taken after the prison visit shows how effective the program was for each of them. Scared Straight is a powerful film; the setting and language will be offensive to some, but it is exactly those elements which make it such a forceful production. Though made back in the 1970s, it is still important and timely viewing.

This is the kind of frank, brutal, and explicit commentary that you simply cannot find in a "prison" movie. The interaction between the "Lifers" (inmates who have been committed to life sentences, and perform an outreach service to children at risk) and the potentially felonious kids is extremely powerful. After watching, you have to wonder why there isn't a program like this in every city in every state in every country. Forget about any fictional account of prison life that you've ever seen - Scared Straight is the real deal, and one you won't soon forget.