Netflix‘s latest buzzy reality show is Unlocked: A Jail Experiment, which follows a very real experiment in the Pulaski County Regional Detention Center.
The series, which dropped last week, chronicles what happens when a group of detainees is given more freedom to work towards being a community. In order to do so, the deputies are taken away and the detainees are given more freedom inside their own “pod.” They had six weeks to see how the experiment played out.
The idea came from Arkansas sheriff Eric Higgins, who wants to aim for a more community-oriented structure for incarcerated people. Higgins also confirmed that at any given time, they had the option to leave the experiment, and they always knew that production were following them.
Higgins told Tudum, “Pulaski County Regional Detention center is a direct supervision facility, which means the deputies are inside the unit with detainees. We thought, ‘What can we do to create some ownership for those detainees in that unit?” Higgins says. “How do we make the facility safer, and what can we do to still hold them accountable but empower them at the same time?’”
While the show might seem controversial, Higgins hopes the series will change the way we view incarcerated people. “In this country, we have a certain perception of someone who goes to jail — the assumption being that they’re guilty,” Higgins says. “But they deserve dignity. These individuals, they’re fathers, they’re uncles, they’re sons. People care about them… they’re not just a number. I believe that if you treat people right, and you hold them accountable… I think they take that with them when they walk out of this facility. I think we have proven that people will rise to the expectation.”
Unlocked: A Jail Experiment is now on Netflix.