Product DescriptionAcclaimed journalist Ted Conover sets a new standard for bold?? in-depth reporting in this first-hand account of life inside the penal system at Sing Sing.
When Ted Conover??s request to shadow a recruit at the New York State Corrections Officer Academy was denied?? he decided to apply for a job as a prison officer himself. The result is an unprecedented work of eyewitness journalism: the account of Conover's year-long passage into storied Sing Sing prison as a rookie guard?? or "ack."
As he struggles to become a good officer?? Conover angers inmates?? dodges blows?? and attempts?? in the face of overwhelming odds?? to balance decency with toughness. Through his insights into the harsh culture of prison?? the grueling and demeaning working conditions of the officers?? and the unexpected ways the job encroaches on his own family life?? we begin to see how our burgeoning prison system brutalizes everyone connected with it. An intimate portrait of a world few readers have ever experienced?? Newjack?is a haunting journey into a dark undercurrent of American life.Amazon.com ReviewMost people know it's easier to get into prison than it is to get out. But for a journalist?? just getting into Sing Sing?? New York's notorious maximum-security prison?? isn't easy. In fact?? Ted Conover was so stymied by official channels that he took the only way in--other than crime--and became a New York State corrections officer: "ear the voices one truly never hears?? the voices of guards--those on the front lines of our prison policies?? the society's proxies."I>Newjack is Conover's account of nearly a year at ground zero of the criminal justice system. What it reveals is a mix of the obvious and the absurd?? with hypocrisies not unexpected considering that the land of the free shares with Russia the distinction of having the world's largest prison population. As of December 1999?? it was projected that the number of people incarcerated in the United States would reach 2 million in 2000. This is the world Conover enters when he?? along with other new recruits?? undergoes seven weeks of pseudomilitary preparation at the Albany Training Academy. Then it's off to Sing Sing for the daily grind of prison life. Conover correctly and vividly captures the essence of that life?? its tedium interspersed with the adrenaline rush of an "ent" and the edge of fear that accompanies every action. He also details how the guards experience their own feelings of confinement?? often at the hands of the inmates:
A consequence of putting men in cells and controlling their movements is that they can do almost nothing for themselves. For their various needs they are dependent on one person?? their gallery officer. Instead of feeling"ke a big?? tough guard?? the gallery officer at the end of the day often feels like a waiter serving a hundred tables or like the mother of a nightmarishly large brood of sullen?? dangerous?? and demanding children. When grown men are infantilized?? most don't take to it too nicely.
And not taking to it nicely often involves violence. Indeed?? the constant potential for violence on any scale makes even humdrum assignments dangerous. It