Unlocked: A Jail Experiment is an 8-episode reality series that is filmed in the H Unit of the Pulaski County jail in Arkansas; there, Sheriff Eric Higgins has implemented a six-week experiment where all the cells will be unlocked 24/7, and corrections officers will only be stationed right outside the unit. What he hopes is that the detainees in the unit will work together to govern themselves.
Opening Shot: A night shot of the Pulaski County Correctional Facility in Little Rock, Arkansas. Then we see news footage of fights breaking out in various jails.
The Gist: Why Sheriff Higgins is doing this experiment has a lot to do with how the detainees in Pulaski County are currently living; they’re only let out of their cells for one hour per day, due to personnel shortages. Of course, pent up in a tiny cell all day, lots of anger flows out of the detainees in the common areas, leading to disputes and fights over the smallest beefs. And, as in any jail environment, there are improvised weapons and contraband to deal with.
In the days leading up to Higgins telling the detainees in H Unit about the experiment, we meet some of the incarcerated men; they know that these documentary cameras have been installed in the unit, but they don’t know about the experiment. Most of the people we meet are violent offenders awaiting trial or awaiting a transfer to a state penitentiary. Tiny says he first stabbed someone when he was 8. Eastside got caught stealing snakes from a pet shop. Randy, known as True Story, is one of the oldest detainees and has become a reliable worker there.
When Higgins tells the detainees about the plan, which will start the next day, some of them like Randy thinks it can work. Others, like a young new inmate named Tyler, aren’t so sure. But, while he cleans up the unit after lockdown, Randy takes it upon himself to recruit a “dream crew” that will help govern things.
What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Unlocked: A Jail Experiment is similar to other prison reality series like Inside The World’s Toughest Prisons, Jailbirds, 60 Days In and others.
Our Take: The experiment at the heart of Unlocked seems destined to fail at the start, at least by what we see in the first episode. Stepping out of H Unit and letting the detainees govern themselves just feels like it’s going to generate chaos, rivalries and lots of violence, especially in the first week or two.
We also wonder if that’s what the show’s producers are hoping for. The unit itself looks like it has dozens of detainees, but for now we’re following a handful of the most colorful. These are all people who have been incarcerated multiple times, so they know what prison culture is like. Many of them say that the Pulaski County lockup is one of the worst situations they’ve seen. It feels like the producers are looking at this potential tinderbox and almost half hoping that it explodes once the doors are opened.
All of this is why we watched the first episode not knowing if this idea was generated by Sheriff Higgins or the series’ producers. If it came from Higgins, it feels like a desperate attempt at toning down the violence that bubbles up because of the 23-hour lockdowns, but at least the idea comes from a desire to improve conditions. If it came from the producers, well… You can imagine how our Spidey sense of cynicism would start tingling at the prospect.
The series feels like it’s bordering on exploitative, but it may surprise us and show the detainees actually governing themselves, even after what is an inevitably rocky start. But we just don’t know, and we’re not sure we want to keep watching to find out.
Sex and Skin: None.
Parting Shot: The doors open, the corrections officers leave the unit, and Tiny immediately wants to get his hands on a knife.
Sleeper Star: Is Randy going to be seen as a good guy or a bad guy? Because right now, he’s being portrayed as a guy who delusionally presumes people are going to follow his lead.
Most Pilot-y Line: In a final meeting before he introduces his plan, none of the people in the discussion thinks the plan is going to work. Even Higgins seems less than enthusiastic. It’s another reason why we wonder if this was a producer-created scenario.
Our Call: SKIP IT. There’s something about Unlocked: A Jail Experiment that doesn’t feel right. And we’re not going to watch and hope for bad stuff to go down, because that feels like we’d be playing right into the producers’ hands.
Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.
