Dallas area middle school teacher Calvin Crosby has volunteered to spend 60 days behind bars as part of the cast for 60 Days In: Atlanta.
Crosby made a public post to his Facebook page encouraging friends to watch Thursday night’s premiere episode. “Set the DVR and tune in tomorrow, and you better believe I put on for my city FUNKYTOWN stand up,” he wrote.
His profile says that he lives in Denton, Texas and that he’s originally from Chicago. Calvin graduated from Texas Woman’s University with a bachelor’s degree in social work.
Here’s Calvin’s bio via the 60 Days In page as well as a great photo with his son:
Calvin studied social work in college and worked as a case manager with Child Protective Services. It was a stressful job and many of the kids he worked with had a parent behind bars or ended up criminals themselves. He also saw former inmates lose their parental rights. This only intensified Calvin’s desire to work with at-risk youth. He became a certified teacher and began working as a tutor for kids requiring extra attention.
Calvin is currently an 8th grade teacher at a local Public School. After participating in this project, he hopes he’ll be able to relate to his students on a deeper level and he thinks it may even shock them into changing their own behaviors and patterns. His mission is to teach kids that if you want to achieve your goals, you cannot turn to violence and that a criminal background will be a giant roadblock.
The third season of the hit reality show moves from Clark County Jail to Atlanta’s notorious Fulton County Jail. In a great write up via the AJC Radio & TV Talk blog, host Rodney Ho explained how viewers can anticipate an elevation in intensity based on the change of scenery:
Fulton County Jail is five times larger than Clark County’s jail, with 2,500 prisoners at any one time. Gangs are rampant in Atlanta. The male inmates have to stay in their cells with one other person 15 to 19 hours a day compared to an open space 24/7 in Clark County. Throw in the mix of fistfights, boredom, power struggles, mental illness and drugs and the environment is fraught with danger. Inmates – aware cameras were installed for an unnamed TV show – are rightly paranoid of “snitches.”
In a preview for the upcoming season Calvin tells the cameras, “I’ve never been this nervous in my life. Never ever.” He’s also seen inside as a prisoner exclaims, “The guy is part of that 60 Days s**t!”
60 Days In: Atlanta premieres Thursday, March 2nd at 9/8c on A&E.
