History Series / BeyondScaredStraight

* SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome: Invoked. Many of the kids start out thinking that prison is no big deal. Then they meet real prison guards and inmates while seeing what inmates actually have to do every day just to survive in prison, and suddenly the prospect of going to jail seems way less easy.

** Special mention goes to one kid in the season 2 premier.
--->'''Correctional Officer''': Who you influenced by?\\
'''Youth''': My favorite rapper.\\
'''C.O.''': Who's your favorite rapper?\\
'''Youth''': Lil' Boosie
*** For those who don't know, Lil' Boosie was incarcerated at the time of the episode's initial airing and had been since before this show began airing; he was later released in 2014 after serving 5 years.

** The guards also allow a prison rapist to force a young teen to smear Kool Ade on his lips as lipstick and getting close enough to kiss him, which is sexual abuse.

* DoubleStandardRapeMaleOnMale: Though the subject is not treated with comedy, a lot of the guards are ''very'' willing to threaten the teens with PrisonRape, and talk about it so casually that it's clear it doesn't really bother them much. A terrifying case of TruthInTelevision, as many prison guards and sometimes even wardens view prison rape as a NecessaryEvil that keeps inmates in line, and willingly to turn a blind eye to it.

* ScaryBlackMan: [[AngryBlackMan The Angry Black Men]] are also this. Though it's justified considering that they're in jail, many of them for violent crimes.

* SmallNameBigEgo: Many of the teens that act tough are usually small-time criminals who think they're tougher and more well-known than they really are. But end up being afraid of the much tougher inmates.

* NoHonorAmongThieves: One episode featured an aspiring Marine named Chris and his girlfriend, Daria, who enjoyed partying with alcohol and drugs regularly. A prosecutor at the county jail got Chris to talk about an incident in which he and Daria were busted for underage drinking, and Chris admitted not only that he blamed Daria for the bust because she hadn't put away her beer can fast enough, but that if it came down to testifying against his girlfriend in court for a more lenient sentence for himself, he'd do it. Daria was furious when she learned of this. Not surprisingly, they broke up after the jail tour, although it was because Chris cheated on Daria. For what it's worth, Chris ''was'' scared straight, while Daria wasn't and eventually ended up running away from home and working in a strip club.

** Scaring kids straight rarely works in the long-term, let alone at all. Many of the teens put through the program end up right back where they started, or in other cases, changed their ways for their own reasons.

* AngryBlackMan: Reconstructed. While some of the prisoners will have a heart-to-heart talk with the teens, the initial presentation of African-American prisoners is almost always screaming at them and/or trying to scare them. The idea is to break the teens down this way so they can listen to what the inmates really want the kids to hear.