60 Days In

Cover Blown

The show 60 Days In follows several participant who agree to go undercover in jail to expose weaknesses and problems within the system.

This year has been an exceptionally interesting season. This season the show is filmed at the Fulton County Jail in Georgia.  Participants are given false ID's and charges and are booked into the jail with only a couple people knowing who they really are.

The Men

With as much as 20% of the jails population gang affiliated, things can get real very quickly. One of the male inmates gives the distress signal to the shows producers and tells them he wants to tap out. Not because he is worried about himself but because he is worried about his son in the next pod who is also a participant n the show. The father, Matt has gotten onto bad terms with another inmate a worried they will take it out on his son. There is a locked door in between the two pods where inmates easily slip goods back and forth and talk to each through. So information could easily be give to other inmates to go after the man's son. So he does the only thing he knows to do and leaves the show. His son actually does pretty well on the show with just a little blip in the beginning when some of the inmates started saying he was a homosexual, which they wouldn't put up with. But those rumors quickly died down.

The Women

The women seemed to have much more trouble this season. Jaclyn who struggles with the insanity of the pod, she is excited when she discovers one of the other inmates is also a participant in the show. She feels like she has found an ally to lean on during the difficult time. However it is soon obvious that Stephanie is no friend. Stephanie comes into the show bragging about how easy it will be for her and how weak Jaclyn is. She has no intention of sticking her neck out for Jaclyn. But when the meanest woman in the pod who also happens to share a cell with Stephanie, along with several other women, turns on her. Stephanie goes crying to Jaclyn for help who, as a good friend would, tried to help her by telling her to move into her cell where she will be safe.

The plan soon backfires when the guard see's them and tells Stephanie she needs to go back to her own cell. Jaclyn tries to explain to the guard that she is being bullied in her cell but the guard doesn't care and back she goes. When the cell mates question Stephanie she wimps out and completely throws Jaclyn under the bus, leading to the junk yard dog threatening her. And she does it right in front of the guard who simply "asks" her not to beat the crap out of Jaclyn. Because of the serious threat to her safety, the young mother taps out and leaves the show.

In comes participant Angele, who almost immediately falls for another female inmate. She thinks its true love and quickly forms a physical relationship with the inmate. Which is quickly followed by a confession that she is not a real inmate. At one point Angela claims she told the inmate that she worked for the warden while another time she said she told her she was part of a show. Either way the production teams becomes alarmed at her confession and alerts the warden who has no choice but to shut the program down. Angela says she has no regrets because she got what she wanted, the girl.

Angela is not allow to return to the pod to say goodbye to her girlfriend, leaving the inmate worried when she doesn't return to the pod and wandering why Angela left so suddenly. Angela assures Production and the warden her girlfriend won't say a word to anyone, she was wrong. She blabs it to everyone. With Stephanie still inside and at now at risk production decides to pull her first before the men, making it look like she was being released.

Next the men had to be pulled before word traveled to the men's jail about fake inmates being planted in the pods. Many of the inmates are already familiar with the show and it won't take long before they start pointing fingers at each other. So one by one the men are pulled not knowing why until they do their followup interviews.

Bottom Line

Many are angry at Angela for being so stupid and robbing them the opportunity to complete their journeys. This week will be the shows tell all episode where the other participants will confront Angela as well as each other. It will be the first time they all meet each other. It should be an explosive episode and for me I want to know if Angela really did get the girl or was she just entertainment for the inmate.

I will say that it is shocking how little the guards care. Yes, these people deserve to be punished for their crimes and many should never get out, ever. But the guards also have a job to do and should do a better job of protecting inmates especially those who have committed only minor crimes.