NEW YORK (AP) – Seven innocent civilians agreed to spend two months in an Indiana jail and have their experiences filmed for an A&E Network series, “60 Days In,” that will air starting next month.
Backgrounds of the fake inmates, whose jail time ended in December, were kept from both corrections officers and real inmates at the Clark County Jail in Jeffersonville, Indiana. Even though one of the participants dropped out after being punched by an inmate, the show’s producer and Clark County Sheriff Jamey Noel said Wednesday that the stunt was worth the risk.
“We wanted to create a show that really shows what it is like to do time, from a perspective that hadn’t been seen before,” said Gregory Henry, executive producer for the Lucky 8 TV production company.
The 12-episode series begins 9 p.m. EST Thursday, March 10, with two back-to-back episodes, then moves to 10 p.m. EST starting March 17.
The civilians all had their reasons for participating. One woman was a social worker hoping to put an end to gang violence, one was an ex-Marine who thought the experience would help him become a DEA agent, one was a teacher who wanted to tell students where bad choices can lead them, and one young man wanted to get a sense of what his jailed brother was going through.