|
Documentary series "60 Days In" will begin airing on the A&E
channel in March, the network said on Wednesday.
The seven men and women volunteers, ranging from a social worker
trying to end gang violence to a military wife who feels
prisoners have it easy behind bars, lived among inmates at the
Clark County Jail in Jeffersonville, Indiana last year.
None of the jail inmates nor staff were aware they were posing
as criminals or taking part in a television show.
The program was devised by Clark County Sheriff Jamey Noel, who
was appointed in January 2015, in a bid to root out corruption
at the jail. The volunteers were followed by hundreds of cameras
planted throughout the jail, which houses about 500 inmates
charged with crimes ranging from drug dealing to murder.
"The only way to truly understand what was going on in the jail
was to implement innocent participants into the system to
provide first-hand unbiased intelligence," Noel said in a
statement.
"These brave volunteers helped us identify critical issues
within our system that undercover officers would not have been
able to find. We couldn’t be more thrilled with the success of
this inaugural program," Noel added.
The seven participants had never been charged with a crime nor
spent time behind bars. They took part for a variety of motives
ranging from wanting to get a better understanding of the system
to preparing for a career in law enforcement, the documentary
producers said.
The 12-episode series will start rolling out on A&E on March 10.
(Reporting By Jill Serjeant; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)
[© 2016 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] Copyright 2016 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. |
|
