In the eighth season of “60 Days In,” which premieres on June 15, an all-new cast is placed inside the Pitt County Detention Center in Greenville, N.C.
Seven innocent people are back behind bars in the newest season of 60 Days In — and one of them spoke exclusively to ahead of the premiere.
The hit A&E television series follows people who trade their normal lives to volunteer to become inmates inside county jails across the country under assumed identities for two months.
The show’s goal is to explore corruption in the jail system through the eyes of participants in the hopes of bringing about positive change, the network says. However, once inside the facility, the participants must complete their mission with neither the guards or prisoners know they have not been convicted of a crime.
In the eighth season of 60 Days In, which premieres on June 15, an all-new cast is placed inside the Pitt County Detention Center in Greenville, N.C.
An exclusive trailer for the upcoming season is shown below.
“There are problems inside the detention center that my staff and I cannot see,” Pitt County Sheriff Paula Dance says in the clip. “With the help of the 60 Days In program, there are seven volunteers that are ready to go inside, live among the inmates, and report back problems that they found.”
“And hopefully with their help, I can get my jail into a better place and fix the problems from the inside out,” the sheriff adds.
One of this season’s participants opened up to exclusively about why she chose to be voluntarily locked up in jail after surviving her own drug addiction and prior convictions.
“Oh my gosh. So, if I’m comparing this experience to my last time when I got sober, it was much more difficult, much more hard, many more emotions. I never want to go back,” Sara, who only is identified in the show by her first name, tells .
Prior to her appearance on 60 Days In, Sara says she struggled with meth addiction starting at the age of 14, had her first child at the age of 18, and has been in and out of jail roughly seven times on drug-related crimes, with her most recent stint – sometime between 2012 and 2014 – being a sobering experience.
“Jail was actually where I found my recovery the last time I went to jail,” Sara, 34, says. “And so, I attended some programs in jail that helped me want to get sober.”
“I’ve been working online doing social media stuff, businesses, coaching, things like that,” she adds. “And so, that’s really why I wanted to do this was to use my story and inspire those that were in jail that had been maybe going through a drug addiction.”
Despite her mission, the mother of six says she was aware that returning to jail would expose her to situations that could potentially trigger her.
“It was really hard for me to hear all of the glorifying [of] drugs,” she tells . “A lot of the inmates, of course, have bad addictions. And so, me listening to their stories, it kind of made me sick a lot.”
However, Sara says that the one of the hardest parts of her experience was being away from her six kids.
“They were with their dad and here at home. And I just kept telling myself, “This isn’t forever. This is a good mission that I’m doing, and it’s going to change lives.” And I can’t wait for my kids to actually watch this and show them, “This is what jail is. This is what trouble brings you.” You know?”
The fake criminal charge, which Sara was “arrested” for was driving with a suspended license. But leaning into her assumed identity in the program was not as easy as one might suspect.
“It was hard to try to keep my cover story straight, and that was really scary,” she says. “Just any minute, what are they going to ask me and drill me? And it was hard for me to get people to like me, if that makes sense.”
Sara says being vulnerable and sharing “dark things” was her way of gaining the inmates’ trust.
“I do have all of these tattoos, and so that really helped me because I have a needle and my sobriety date and things like that,” she explains. “And they were like, “Whoa, this girl is really… She does have a story.” And so, me opening up and sharing mine, a lot of them really did trust me and they opened themselves up to me, and it was really beautiful.”
Overall, Sara says viewers should expect to see the food the participants ate, the living situation, and some fights and drugs. But the most shocking aspect, according to Sara, was that she didn’t see any drugs.
“I’m like, ‘Are they protecting me?’ They knew I was a sobriety girl, so did they not want to show me? I was really, really shocked. And so yeah, you’ll just have to watch and see, and it’s going to be wild.”