Mother speaks on Netflix’s ‘Unlocked: A Jail Experiment’ which shows inmate accused of killing her son
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. – The new Netflix series “Unlocked: A Jail Experiment” has received plenty of attention, both positive and negative.
The eight-part series is about an experiment at the Pulaski County jail in Little Rock that gives inmates freedom and privilege within a unit.
For Sheriff Eric Higgins, the goal of giving freedom and providing privileges like free phone calls is to show the detainees that they can act like people and not criminals. He hopes this will help them in life.
Jordan Parkinson is one of the inmates on the show. He was charged with capital murder for the 2022 death of Jadon Shackelford in Little Rock.
Jadon Shackleford’s mom, Hailey Shackelford, said she struggles with watching the show because she doesn’t feel justice seeing one of the men accused of killing her son as part of a freedom experiment.
“I have not been able to finish the whole thing. I’ve started it and stopped it many times,” Shackelford said.
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Fifty inmates were a part of the experiment. They went from spending 23 hours behind a locked door to no locked doors and no officers.
“I understand they’re trying to make a show but there are real people involved and real people that are hurting seeing one of the people that murdered my son doing an experiment and getting gifts and free phone calls and all this stuff when I can never call my child again,” Shackelford said.
When it comes to the motive of the experiment, she said she doesn’t “think someone that’s done such a violent crime should get any sort of reward.”
She said it’s painful for her to watch the series and noted “it does something to you seeing someone that took your child from you.”
Shackelford said she wishes she would have been told about the series before it aired instead of being blindsided. And not just her, because she said she knows she isn’t the only one with the feeling of a wound ripped open watching the show.
“If it’s hurting me, I know it’s doing the same to other families,” she said.
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The experiment lasted six weeks. Jordan Parkinson was released on bond.
The series premiered on April 10 and is still on Netflix.
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