Season 1 |
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Episode Guide
Episode 1 – Shanks And Shakedowns
Episode 2 – Day 1
Episode 3 – The Ogs Take Control
Episode 4 – Pod Daddy
Episode 5 – Fire & Hooch
Episode 6 – The Vote
Episode 7 – New Blood
Episode 8 – Decision Day
This 8-part reality series opens the doors (quite literally) of the Pulaski County Regional Detention Facility in Little Rock, Arkansas.
Inside this prison are hardened inmates of all kinds – some of them quite intimidating. You wouldn’t want to cross words with some of them if you were an inmate yourself, though in a regular US prison like this one, you probably wouldn’t have to, as you’d be locked inside your cell for 23 hours a day.
Such is the case for most of the prisoners at this facility in Little Rock. However, one man – Sheriff Eric Higgins – came along to change that for the inmates in one of the prison’s units.
He recognized the problem of the prisoners being cooped inside their cells for most of the day. With very little time to experience a taste of freedom and to form a bond with other inmates, their ‘free’ hour was largely wasted as they used it to vent their resentments and pent-up anger. Needless to say, violent incidents often occurred.
Higgins came up with a unique but rather risky solution. Instead of keeping them locked up in their cells, he decided their doors should be open, thus giving them freedom to move around their prison unit. Not only that but Higgins also decided to remove the deputies and let the detainees supervise themselves. A bad move?
The new Netflix documentary Unlocked: A Jail Experiment gives us unprecedented access into the prison with cameras capturing every moment of these men’s lives as they interact with one another and learn to create a peaceable community.
There will be some people who hate what Higgins has done. For their own reasons, they will believe these inmates deserve to be locked up like animals. Why should they be allowed a taste of freedom?
But here’s the thing. These men aren’t animals. They are human beings, many of whom are deserving of a second chance, though I know some will disagree.
As Higgins said in an interview:
“In this country, we have a certain perception of someone who goes to jail — the assumption being that they’re guilty. But they deserve dignity. These individuals, they’re fathers, they’re uncles, they’re sons. People care about them… they’re not just a number. I believe that if you treat people right, and you hold them accountable… I think they take that with them when they walk out of this facility. I think we have proven that people will rise to the expectation.” (source)
By returning their dignity to them, Higgins hoped to transform their lives, give them renewed hope in themselves, and perhaps give them the incentive to turn their backs on crime after learning to live more peacefully. Did he succeed? You’ll have to watch the documentary to find out.
As we see in the first episode of the doc, there is immediate tension when those doors open. There is particular tension between the younger and older inmates who aren’t willing to get along nicely. Words are said, punches are thrown, and things begin to escalate. There’s the feeling at certain points that Higgins has made a huge mistake.
But over time, the atmosphere begins to change. While some men continue to cause problems, some try to make sure everybody respects the freedom they have been granted. One of these is Randy Randall, an older inmate, who sees the value in what Higgins is trying to do. He does his best to rally the men together and to iron out any issues before the unthinkable happens and they are thrown back into their cells for 23 hours a day.
Randall’s efforts aren’t appreciated by everybody. There are those who are sick of him getting involved in the business of others. Some even call him “Pod Daddy” because of his fatherly attempts to bring peace and reconciliation. But at least he’s trying, unlike one man who makes himself a shank and is promptly thrown out of the experiment.
For those who doubt the humanity of these men, this documentary is certainly worth a watch. While they have committed terrible crimes, they are still relatable.
One man, nicknamed Tiny, looks intimidating with his facial tattoos and less-than-tiny physique. But he’s still vulnerable and sensitive, as we see when he talks to the camera about missing his son, who he has not spoken to in a very long time. As he doesn’t have enough money to use the unit’s phones to call his boy, this makes his situation all the more sadder.
When Higgins decides to allow the prisoner’s free phone calls, there is understandable joy, especially for Tiny. When we see him speak to his son, it’s an emotional moment as we hear them both speaking to each other with love. Tiny’s hard shell even starts to break though he’s careful not to appear weak in front of the cameras or the other men.
Unless you have been inside a prison yourself, as either an inmate or an employee, you won’t understand what it’s really like inside such a facility. But this documentary gives us unprecedented access into a prison, bringing us up close and personal to the men who frequent such places of incarceration.
It’s eye-opening to be sure, both in the way it doesn’t flinch from showing us the violence inherent in a prison and also in the way it shows us a different side to the men many people will perceive as monsters.
None of us are perfect. We have all made mistakes. Though admittedly, not all of us have made errors of judgment that have landed us in a prison cell. However, it’s important to remember that people don’t suddenly become criminals overnight.
There are often reasons why people behave how they do, some of these being out of their control, which is something to remember before we judge those who end up behind bars. After watching Unlocked: A Jail Experiment, you may have cause to be more sparing with your judgements.
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Verdict - 8/10
8/10
Hey, thanks for your comment. From what we hear in the doc, H Unit was the only unit chosen for the experiment (at the time of filming). So, I don’t think the inmates were handpicked. After filming, other units were being considered for the experiment and it’s possible they might become the subject of another series. That’s not official but it makes sense to continue the series if viewer numbers are high. I think the Sheriff had planned on the free phone calls at an early stage. I expect he was rolling out perks gradually to see how that would affect the inmates. Regardless, I appreciate your views, so thanks for getting in touch :)
Reality shows have covered the jail experience to death, and Unlocked retreads all the clichés. The novelty of its open-doors experiment is undercut by a sense the deck is stacked; the inmates seem handpicked rather than a random sampling, and we see no other cell units for comparison to gauge the effectiveness of the experiment (or how this unit is affected by the “invisible” presence of a camera crew). Besides denying us a control group, the sheriff continually changes the parameters of his own game, undermining any objective accounting of the program’s merits, as when he introduces unlimited free phone calls midway through. Did he make this humane change facility-wide or only for the tv unit? Did it have more impact than the open-doors policy itself? Intriguing idea, but mediocre television and bad science.