Scared Straight!

Scared Straight!
DVD Cover
Directed by	Arnold Shapiro
Written by	Arnold Shapiro
Produced by	Arnold Shapiro
Narrated by	Peter Falk
Cinematography	William Moffitt
Edited by	Bob Niemack
Production company	Golden West Television
Distributed by	Golden West Television
Release date	November 2, 1978 (1978-11-02)
Running time	52 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English

Scared Straight! is a 1978 American documentary directed by Arnold Shapiro. Narrated by Peter Falk, the subject of the documentary is a group of juvenile delinquents and their three-hour session with actual convicts. Filmed at Rahway State Prison, a group of inmates known as the "lifers" berate, scream at, and terrify the young offenders in an attempt to "scare them straight", so that those teenagers will avoid prison life.

The documentary aired on television in the late 1970s, uncensored; it marked the first time that the words "fuck" and "shit" were broadcast on many networks. Some broadcasters (an example being CFQC, a CTV Network affiliate in Canada) added locally produced segments in which experts discussed both the content of the documentary and the rationale behind airing it uncensored.

The documentary received several awards, including the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.^[1] It found that most of the participants did not reoffend. However, studies that compared and evaluated the effects of various Scared Straight programs against a control group have concluded that they increase the likelihood of participants later committing crimes.