Unlocked: A Jail Experiment is the new Netflix reality show putting a whole new twist on any type of series I’ve seen before. I’ve been a reality TV expert for years – and this is unlike any cast you’ve met.
Forget the influencer types on Love Island, as well as the reality soap stars on Real Housewives and Made in Chelsea, because Netflix is casting a whole group of criminal inmates for a new social experiment.
What Netflix’s Unlocked is all about
Arkansas sheriff Eric Higgins had a bold idea, which sparked Unlocked: A Jail Experiment on Netflix. He wanted to transform incarceration at a Little Rock detention facility using a social experiment.
They give the inmates the ability to come and go from their cells and decide for themselves how certain things in the unit should run. Some choose to maintain order and rebuild their lives with the freedom.
However, others challenge remaining authority and each other. The whole aim is to see if the inmates can act more like society on the outside, so they can no longer spend 23 hours behind bars a day.
Unlocked: A Jail Experiment is super risky
Risk always comes with doing anything out of the norm. So when Arkansas sheriff Eric Higgins decided to put his reputation as a well-respected authoritative figure on the line, even the inmates were shocked.
The goal of the experiment is to determine if more autonomy and less control in prisons could lead to a more community-oriented living environment, to discourage people committing future crimes.
However, the show sees inmates say just one person could ruin the six-week experiment for them all. As seen in the Stanford Prison Experiment, it could lead to unethical issues, like prisoners getting stressed.
In one episode, inmates voted on which of them to remove from their cellblock after guards discover bags of prison wine, which some could argue increases the risk of more violence.
Unlike any other reality TV show
The new Netflix docuseries is unlike any other reality TV show because most unscripted series feature stars who are either trying to become famous, or at least already influencers in some way.
Even if they’re not trying to get on TV, contestants usually apply themselves or at least live relatively normal lives, while inmates are used to being kept away from the real and online world.
As a reality TV expert of years, the experiment gives the inmates a chance to receive love as a person rather than as a criminal, and they won’t be acting up for cameras. They’ll be trying to gain freedom for behind bars.
WATCH UNLOCKED: A JAIL EXPERIMENT ON NETFLIX FROM APRIL 10
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