Girls Incarcerated

For this weeks blog post I watched the new Netflix original series Girls Incarcerated: Young and Locked up. This show follows the daily lives of young teenage girls in the Madison Juvenile Correctional Facility in Indiana. Most of these girls are not even 18 yet and have charges for drugs, assault battery, and theft. The program helps them to graduate from high school, provides much needed therapy, and has a substance abuse program. These girls are all in their teenage years still, so they are still very much working through the struggles of most young people. They are going through transitional periods in their life while being locked up, which makes it all the more interesting. The girls shown are navigating friendships, studying, dating, and being away from home. The girls that have shown a lot of improvement and growth get to wear burgundy shirts. The girls really strive to get those shirts and look up to the girls that have them.

One very interesting point that I picked up on right away is that the girls are all referred to as students and not as inmates. I think that this is really important for them so that their stay doesn’t feel so permanent. It’s a reminder that they aren’t inmates yet, and if they can get their lives turned around they never will be. These girls really are just students that need a lot more help and attention. The girls tend to put on a very hard exterior. They are often times extremely disrespectful and curse at the correctional officers. I definitely believe that this is something that happened when the cameras aren’t around, but I found myself wondering if the cameras added to their disrespectful behavior. Possibly the girls were wanting to show off and act out in front of the cameras. In the show, when new students arrived the correctional officers said the girls would often act out in front of them. Could the same concept be applied to the camera crew? I think that there is definitely a correlation between the two. That being said, it kind gives off the feeling that these young girls are being exploited for entertainment. Possibly that their growth and development is hindered because there is a camera crew at the facility causing them to possibly act out. In the first episode, around 10 girls are shown, while the rest of the girls are not seen at all, their faces are even blurred out. Most of the girls are minors so their privacy is very important. Possibly they just don’t want to be filmed, or it’s against their parents wishes. Either way it’s hard to get a whole impression of the girls when only a handful are shown. The girls on the screen are the only girls that basically want to be on the screen, so we really aren’t getting the full picture.

Although Girls Incarcerated: Young and Locked Up left me feeling a little bit uneasy I still think that it was an overall great watch. I would definitely recommend it to anyone who enjoys watching shows about prison or rehab.