Former Home Secretary David Blunkett presents this hard-hitting new documentary series in which ten youths spend ten days in prison. Each of the teenagers has convictions ranging from theft to assault, but none of them have ever served time behind bars. In a unique experiment, they will find out what life in prison is truly like for the first time – but will it be enough to change their ways? In the opening instalment, the ten youths arrive at Scarborough Prison and face a tough time settling in to their new routine.

Closed for over a century, Scarborough Prison has now reopened to accept a new batch of prisoners – ten young delinquents who are at the crossroads between a life of honest toil and a life of crime. For the next ten days, the imposing Victorian jail is to play a part in a pioneering social experiment. These ten young men, each of whom has been in regular trouble with the police, will find out what life inside is actually like. For these repeat offenders, it is a final chance to rethink their choices in life before it is too late.

The scheme is championed by David Blunkett MP, who will monitor the inmates’ progress and sit on the prison’s parole board. Mr Blunkett regards the project as a “second chance” for the teenagers involved – and admits that it offers him an opportunity to conduct an experiment that he was never able to complete when he was Home Secretary. “Warning young people off a life of crime and giving them an alternative path in life surely has to make good common sense,” he says.

The young men, aged 16 and 17, have been put forward by their parents, who have been driven to their wits’ end by their children’s behaviour. Terry speaks for most of the parents involved when he reflects on his son Aaron’s misdemeanours. “Me and his mum still love him, we just don’t love his behaviour,” he says. “I just want my son back.”

The experiment begins when the ten young men arrive at the jail and are shown to their cells. Prisoners in the UK can spend up to 23 hours a day in their cells, and the ten volunteers will have to endure many hours alone. Like real prisoners, they will also be expected to work. Their day will be divided between education programmes and manual tasks in the workshop.

As their first full day gets underway, it is clear that not all of the new intake are coping well with their environment. Jamie from Sunderland has convictions for theft, shoplifting and fighting, but has never served a custodial sentence – until now. His parents know only too well the effects of time in jail, as Jamie’s dad, John, served eight years in prison for manslaughter. John now wishes he had experienced ten days of incarceration to help scare him onto the straight and narrow. “If it had happened to me years and years ago, I think I would been a different person,” he says.

As a second night in his cell beckons, Jamie becomes increasingly agitated and fellow inmate Aaron is asked to share his cell. When the prison psychologist arrives to talk to him, Jamie punches the wall, and staff decide that he is in no fit state to continue. Prison governor David Wilson has a last chat with Jamie before releasing him. “The first important thing to take away is: prison is not for you,” he says. A chastened Jamie returns home swearing never to return.

Three days into the project, the majority of the inmates seem to have settled in to prison life. Yet they are about to discover that they do not have the block to themselves. As part of the experiment, they are to be joined by ten former convicts with over 200 years of prison time between them. These men now work to rehabilitate young offenders, and they know every cold, hard fact of prison life only too well. How will the young inmates cope when forced to share a cell with a battle-hardened old lag?