Once you're arrested and with a serious conviction on record it's difficult to dig out from that hole. If you end up in prison--for whatever reason--it's basically college for being a criminal because there is not even the facade of rehabilitation. When you get out all you get is the desire to not end up back in prison, but with the socialization and lack of skills that makes it easy.

Don't use those TV shows as a reflection of reality--they're as real as any other reality TV show, which is to say it's an incredibly distorted version of reality.