JEFFERSONVILLE, Ind. — DiAundré Newby was still an inmate when the A&E documentary series “60 Days In,” set in the Clark County jail in southern Indiana, premiered last month, so he wasn’t able to watch his TV debut with the rest of the country.

But when Newby was released on March 23 after a six-month stint behind bars, he was quick to tune in.

“One of the first things I did was watch the episodes that I wasn’t able to see,” Newby said. “I have been watching each episode.”

The show follows seven people who volunteered to go undercover as inmates in the Clark County jail for two months. Sheriff Jamey Noel told the Jeffersonville, Indiana News and Tribune the undercover program was an opportunity for him to see what really goes on inside his jail.

Newby, 20, from the nearby town of Charlestown, grabbed viewers’ attention when he took Robert — a controversial undercover volunteer — under his wing. Newby said he and other inmates were told that the A&E cameras were documenting experiences of first-time inmates like Robert. But when the first thing Robert did was ask if the jail’s TV had the NFL package, inmates became suspicious of Robert and the cameras.

“It didn’t take us long to figure out that they weren’t really focusing on first timers,” Newby said. “We didn’t know that any undercovers had been put in [with us], but with most people who’d been doing this a long time they were always suspicious that that might be a possibility.”

Unlike other inmates, Newby said he didn’t suspect that Robert was a cop or think that he was connected to the show. But he knew something was off. Still, Newby tried to help Robert navigate the pod. For that, there were consequences — or at least there appeared to be on the show.

Viewers saw Newby get attacked by another inmate, but Newby said things weren’t quite the way the show presented them.

“Whenever I was assaulted by [the inmate], it actually didn’t have anything to do with how I addressed Robert. That was a completely unrelated incident,” Newby said.

Newby said the real story was that he had assaulted the inmate for unpaid debts and the inmate retaliated by punching Newby in the head. Newby added that the inmate waited until a correctional officer was nearby before assaulting him so that he would be removed from the pod. Newby said the inmate used a classic “check-out move” so he could avoid the consequences of his debts to other inmates.

Newby said he also didn’t like that the show implied that he and the inmate who assaulted him were both removed from the pod. He said he was only taken out for questioning, but returned to the pod 10 minutes later.

In the show, a title card tells viewers that Newby was removed and that producers informed Robert that Newby “was attacked and is no longer in D-pod.”

“That was actually something that did aggravate me because they took it out of context and made it seem different than what it was,” Newby said.

A&E declined to comment.

Newby said he thinks the show can be a learning tool for the jail, but that he also views it as entertainment.

“They did alter a few things to give it a whole different meaning, so I’m quite sure that a lot of that had to do with them trying to get ratings and kind of Hollywood it up a little bit,” he said.

A second season of the show has already been announced, but Newby said he has no plans to return to the jail.

“I’ve made my decision to stop acting like a fool since I got out of jail,” he said. “I’m 20 years old. I mean, there are inmates in the jail who will look at people my age and say you’re too young to be doing this. You have your whole life ahead of you.”

DePompei writes for the Jeffersonville, Indiana News and Tribune.