60 Days In might be the most radical reality TV show concept yet

SEVEN people volunteered to spend 60 days in one of America’s hardest prisons. But no one knows the new inmates are fakes.

IT’S official, there is no limit to what a person will do for their 15 minutes of fame. A new reality television series is proof of that.

The 12-part 60 Days In, premiering on March 10 in the US, is about as risky as it gets for TV execs and those who have signed up to take part.

The concept is simple: Take seven ordinary, law-abiding Americans and place them inside one of the country’s hardest prisons. The new inmates are given fake criminal records and neither guards nor existing inmates are told it’s all an elaborate ruse.

Footage for the series is recorded on the security cameras at Clark County Jail in Indiana and via face-to-face interviews with a mock documentary crew pretending to film “first time inmates” talking about their experiences.

Among the willing participants is Barbra, a mother of two young children who, according to creators A&E, “strongly feels that inmates have it easy behind bars and that taxpayers foot the bill (for) three square means a day and a place to sleep”.

In a trailer for the series, she admits: “It’s really hitting me how real this is.” Critics say that’s part of the problem — participants had no idea how “real” it would be or what risks were involved.

The man who runs the prison, Indiana Sheriff Jamey Noel, is credited with coming up with the concept as a way of gathering information on what really goes on when guards aren’t looking. He says it was a huge success.

“Before I took office … the inmates were running the facility,” he says.

“People were getting arrested on purpose because drugs were cheaper to get in jail ... We learned stuff that most experienced corrections officers never knew was going on.”

To get that information, though, the new inmates had to go through hell. Jeff, a security guard from Nevada, was one of them.

“What the hell did I get myself in to?” he asks producers during filming.

For Jeff, taking part is a means to an end. He wants to use the experience to “take the next step in his law enforcement career”.

Prison 101: Don’t let this happen to you. Picture: A&E/60 Days In

“Jeff believes taking part in the program will help his resume and put him at the head of the class and distinguish him among candidates,” his bio on the show’s official website declares.

To prepare the seven new prisoners for whatever might confront them on the inside — violence, drugs, prison politics — they are taken through Prison 101. In a classroom, they’re taught how to spend money and how to avoid becoming “somebody’s b***h”.

Another first-time inmate taking part in the series — which has loose ties to the Robert Redford film Brubaker, based on a true story — is Isaiah, whose links to the prison system are particularly personal. Isaiah’s brother was jailed five years ago and, though they speak on a regular basis, Isaiah says he wants to walk in his brother’s shoes.

Maryum, a social worker whose job involves meeting with troubled youths caught in up gang-related crime, is also voluntarily locking herself up.

The eldest of boxing great Muhammad Ali’s nine children, she says her father would likely not approve “if he didn’t have Parkinson’s and was bright”.

She told USA Today she always wanted to know what it was like inside.

Fake prisoners and real prisoners. Could you tell the difference? Picture: A&E

“I spent the greater part of my profession trying to prevent at-risk kids from going to jail.”

Variety, which reviewed the controversial series, said viewers can expect to experience a “queasy feeling associated with turning a prison into a reality-TV backdrop, with all the baggage that entails”.

Sheriff Noel isn’t worried about that. The Clark County law enforcer, who himself has something of a celebrity fanbase, loves the attention.

Between hosting firearm information sessions and calling out child abusers, he’s been touring the country appearing on talk shows and promoting the program. He knows he has his critics, too, but he hopes the majority of people see the show for what it is.

“You’re always going to have critics,” he said. “At the end of the day, people will see my motivation was to fix things, to improve things, and that’s really why I did it.”

What could possibly go wrong?