Editing Scared Straight! (section)

=== Cultural references ===
Television series ''[[Hardcastle and McCormick]]'' had an end of first-season episode called "Scared Stiff" in which teenage boys were taken to a [[state prison]] to scare them out of further crimes.

In 1984, the syndicated animated series ''[[Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids#Revamps and renames|The Adventures of Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids]]'' used the ''Scared Straight!'' formula in the episode "Busted". There, after the main protagonists are arrested for being accessories to grand theft auto—they had accepted a ride from their new friend, Larry, who admits only after initiating a police pursuit that he had just stolen the car—the police sergeant and court agree to drop the charges against the Cosby Kids ... but only after giving them a tour of a maximum-security prison, where the kids are frightened by the inmates and their behavior. In the end, the Cosby Kids vow to stay out of trouble and promptly disassociate with Larry.

The 1992 ''[[Married... with Children]]'' sixth season, episode "Rites of Passage", has [[Al Bundy]], on Bud's 18th birthday, lamenting how the Department of Juvenile Corrections bused some juvenile offenders over to his shoe store, making them spend over three hours watching him work at his dead-end job, to show them how important it is to stay in school-and out of trouble, "until even the most hardened punk was crying like a baby".

Between 2008 and 2012, ''[[Saturday Night Live]]'' satirized ''Scared Straight!''-type programs in [[Recurring Saturday Night Live characters and sketches introduced 2007–2008#Scared Straight|a series of eight sketches]].

In the third-season episode of ''[[Arrested Development (TV series)|Arrested Development]]'' entitled "Notapusy," a former prison inmate mistakes a [[gay conversion therapy]] seminar entitled "Startled Straight" for a ''Scared Straight!''-type program and lectures the group of men about the horrors of incarceration, especially the prevalence of homosexual [[prison sex]].<ref>{{cite news |last1=Murray |first1=Noel |title=Arrested Development: "Forget Me Now"/"Notapusy" |url=https://www.avclub.com/arrested-development-forget-me-now-notapusy-1798175047 |access-date=4 June 2018 |work=[[The A.V. Club]] |date=November 20, 2012}}</ref>

"A Date with the Booty Warrior," a third-season episode of ''[[The Boondocks (TV series)|The Boondocks]]'', features a group of children participating in a program called "Scared Stiff". However, the program is subverted when the children and prisoners collaborate to organize a [[prison strike]].<ref>{{cite news |last1=Pierce |first1=Leonard |title=The Boondocks: "A Date With The Booty Warrior" |url=https://www.avclub.com/the-boondocks-a-date-with-the-booty-warrior-1798165330 |access-date=4 June 2018 |work=[[The A.V. Club]] |date=June 27, 2010 |archive-date=August 31, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170831000225/http://tv.avclub.com/the-boondocks-a-date-with-the-booty-warrior-1798165330 |url-status=live }}</ref>

Rap artist [[GZA]] utilised samples of Peter Falk's narration for the song "Path of Destruction" from the album ''[[Pro Tools (album)|Pro Tools]]''.

Comedian Tom Segura referenced the Scared Straight episode of 1999 that he claims "aired once" in his Netflix comedy special ''Mostly Stories''.<ref>{{cite AV media |people=Tom Segura |date=2016 |title=Tom Segura: Mostly Stories |medium=Online |language=en |url=https://scrapsfromtheloft.com/2017/04/19/tom-segura-mostly-stories-2016-full-transcript/ |access-date=December 6, 2018 |format=Streaming |time=42 minutes |publisher=Netflix}}</ref>

In the ''[[Beavis and Butt-Head]]'' episode "Scared Straight", Beavis and Butt-Head are sent to prison for a day as part of a Scared Straight program. They end up befriending some inmates who share their passion for [[heavy metal music]], and decide to sneak back in to stay longer.

In the ''[[Drake & Josh]]'' episode "Steered Straight", Drake Parker and Josh Nichols are sent to jail as part of a program that's similar to Scared Straight. However, on the way to the jail, the police car they were riding in is hijacked by an actual criminal, who mistakes the brothers for a criminal duo.