Beyond Scared Straight Episode Rating Graph

Teens featured in earlier episodes of the series are revisited to see if their jailhouse experiences had any meaningful impact on their lives.

A large 14-year-old who attacks his adoptive parents meets the hardened inmates and officers of a Michigan jail.

Authorities hope a tour of prison will knock some much-needed sense into some troublesome teens from Southern California's San Bernardino County.

A prison in St. Clair, Ill., is visited by teens who are threatened by screaming inmates

A 13-year-old arsonist schemes to assault members of a rival gang, but his criminal plans change after he squeals on a larcenous convict.

New visitors to the clink include a light-fingered football prodigy, a pot-smoking teen from the suburbs, and an aspiring rap star who thinks that hard time will improve his rhymes.

Oakland County, Michigan is a stone's throw from Detroit's infamous 8-Mile and the streets here are just as tough - but the deputies and inmates who run Oakland County Jail's "Turn-Around" program are even tougher.

An at-risk teen, with dreams of a rap career, gets a wake-up call win he sees where his love of drugs and gang activity will lead, during a visit to the Portsmouth County Jail in Virginia.

A 14-year-old street brawler's defiant attitude surprises the deputies at a Virginia jail.

Portsmouth, Va.: Jail House Cookies

Siblings visit the Western Tidewater Regional Jail in Virginia.

A teenage football star's drug use and violent ways threaten his dreams of a career in law enforcement; a police officer's son believes that he is above the law; a hulking teen troublemaker meets his match.

A colorful deputy attempts to change the lives of four teenage troublemakers spending time at his Georgia jail.

In the second-season finale, San Bernardino County Jail in California is visited by four teens who are also taken to the morgue to witness the consequences of gang violence.

An abusive 16-year-old rapper visits a prison in South Carolina.

Four at-risk teens are brought to one of the nation's most infamous prisons to participate in the S.Q.U.I.R.E.S. program? the oldest inmate-run youth diversion program in the nation. The program, short for San Quentin's Utilization of Inmate Resources, Experiences & Studies, shows these kids the realities of prison life. They see the state's only male Death Row, are paraded past the heckles of the prisoners in the overcrowded cells and discuss how the constant fear of violence and physical harm is around every corner.

A 14-year-old from San Bernardino, Calif., who hangs out with hang members spends a memorable day behind bars.

Outside Detroit, a teen trio of female troublemakers who call themselves The Three Musketeers, discover their bond is not tight enough to survive even a day in the Oakland County women's lockup. Courtney, Tia and Renee love to party, but when they are forced by inmates and deputies to scrub a jail cellblock and bathroom, the party is over. Meanwhile Taylor, a 16-year old thief, is swarmed by screaming female inmates who learn that she stole $2,000 from her grandparents, and one teen makes an unexpected friend behind bars.

Maryland inmates give a group of five at-risk teens a taste of prison when they are forced to eat "Lock-up Loaf," a brick of baked mush served to unruly prisoners. The teens include, Shane, 17, a redneck who is surprised he hasn't killed anyone, Garrett, 13, who HAS been kicked out of eight schools already, Brandy, 16, who skips school to smoke pot, her brother Shawn, 15, who protects Brandy at any cost and Richard, 18, a towering jock who drinks, blacks out and awakens bloodied from brawling.

Small crimes threaten the light bond between two brothers; the teens visit an "alternative lifestyle" ward.

In the third-season finale, a teenage pyromaniac visits Virginia's Hampton Roads Regional Jail, where his mom works as a deputy.

A larcenous teen uses a Taser on her enemies; cameras capture a young brawler's humiliating defeat; a loudmouth threatens to kill her teacher; a spoiled brat shoplifts and plays hooky.

A stint in jail tests the loyalty of two close-knit sisters; a teenage thief follows in the footsteps of his younger brother.

A teen visitor to the Oneida County Correctional Facility in central New York takes a seat in a restraint chair, while another young hoodlum gets handcuffed before he even enters the joint.

A man suffering from cancer hopes that a stint in Georgia's Floyd County Jail will teach his angry teenage son an important lesson.

A 12-year-old girl is reduced to tears during a frightening stay in Florida's Lake County Detention Center.

Inmates at the Portsmouth County Jail lay some hard truths on a would-be rap star; pugnacious siblings are confronted with difficult choices; officers threaten to extend a disrespectful teen's visit.

Four troubled girls get a true taste of prison life during a stay at the Oneida County Correctional Facility.

A young Oklahoma offender tries to escape during a jail visit; preteen toughs are forced to display their loyalty to their respective rival gangs; a teen arsonist gets burned by his actions.

A Texas mother sends her three troublesome daughters to an overnight jail program in Richland County, South Carolina.

A visiting teenage drug dealer fearlessly takes on the taunting residents of a Virginia jail; inmate Nasty Nard greets the newcomers with aggression.

A 15-year-old's world shatters when he sees his tough older brother wearing prison garb; a stoner takes a second tour of jail; deputies put the pressure on a baby-faced bully and a 19-year-old thief.

Angry sisters Precious, 14, and Keying, 17, think they're tough enough for jail, until they are startled to discover a family member serving time at the Oklahoma County jail.

A 12-year-old genius learns he isn't as smart as he imagines after he enters Georgia's Dougherty County Jail.

In a city where your neighborhood defines your gang, four at-risk teen girls endure a day in a female jail and learn where their lives are headed. Though they walk into the jail together, the teens will turn on one of their own. Thalia, 15, is a frightening street brawler (she s even hit her own grandmother) who takes her fight to the inmates and deputies. When she refuses to taste jail food, the other teens force her. Jahmiya, 15, incurs the wrath of female inmates with thick Boston accents, when she uses a derogatory hand gesture. But it is Jahmiya, the scrappy thief, who leads the other female delinquents to gang up on Thalia, forcing her to take in parts of jail life no one should have to stomach. Pot-smoking Tina, 16, is shocked when deputies chain all the teens together.

The Return of "Tiny"

During a physically exhausting all-night jail stay in Richland County, SC, Aaron, 12, a habitual liar, confounds deputies by excelling at every exercise--despite having a broken arm.

Young brothers are separated soon after entering the St. Clair County Jail in Illinois; a stoner learns the pursuit of weed could land him among hardened criminals; a tough teen meets a meaner gang member behind bars.

Following the jail tour, the streets sadly takes the life of of a teen trying to head down a better path.

At the Richland County Jail in South Carolina, troubled teens learn firsthand what jail is like when they are locked in cells for a terrifying all-night stay. Sleep is the last thing they will find though, as deputies and inmates rouse them repeatedly from their bunks during the physically grueling sleepover.

Swampland troublemakers who receive an attitude adjustment include a 17-year-old who uses her looks to her advantage and a young thug who meets a family member behind bars.

A young drug dealer, a child model and twin bullies enter a Georgia jail for a personal experience of the criminal-justice system.

A promiscuous teenage troublemaker shares a cell with a relative in Virginia's Western Tidewater Regional Jail, only to learn that family bonds aren't strengthened behind bars.

A 14-year-old girl and her younger half-sister act out violently in the slammer; two teenage brothers make different choices during their stint in a Virginia jail.

A 16-year-old South Carolina rapper challenges the power of prison deputies, who then team up to teach the disrespectful teen a new tune.

Five teens learn the harsh realities of prison life at the Maryland Correctional Institution at Jessup, where dozens of menacing inmates, including convicted murderers, surround the kids and taunt them. The teens include Steve, 17, who likes the "outlaw" life; Brandon, 17, who's been arrested five times; Dion, who admits to selling drugs; and Sahn, 13, who steals polo shirts because he's got a "passion for fashion.