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Newjack

Guarding Sing Sing

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About this listen

National Book Critics Circle, Nonfiction, 2001

Newjack: Guarding Sing Sing is the story of Conover's rookie year as a guard at Sing Sing. It is a nerve-jangling account of his passage into the storied prison and the culture of its guards - both fresh-faced "newjacks" like Conover and brutally hardened veterans. As he struggles to be a good officer, Conover angers inmates, dodges blows, works to balance decency with toughness, and participates in prison rituals - strip frisks, cell searches, cell "extractions" - that exact a toll on inmates and officers alike.

The tale begins with the corrections academy and ends with the flames and smoke of New Year's Eve on Conover's floor of the notorious B-Block. Along the way, Conover also recounts the history of Sing Sing, from draconian early punishment, to fame as the citadel of capital punishment, to its present status as New York State's "bottom of the barrel" prison.

This book will become a landmark of American journalism - the definitive presentation of the impasse between the need to imprison criminals and the dehumanization of inmates and guards - that almost inevitably takes place behind bars.

©2001 Ted Conover (P)2005 Brilliance Audio, Inc. Freedom & Security Politics & Government Social Sciences Crime

Critic reviews

"Newjack is an astonishing work by a gifted - and dedicated - journalist. Ted Conover takes us into the dangerous, sad, amusing and instructive soul of one of America's best known prisons." ( Tom Brokaw)
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I got this book thinking it would be more of a daily life and troubles inside the prison but to be fair it is not really anything like it, He goes over the history of the place and a little detail about being a correction officer, Some prison characters would of been nice.
It is not a bad book at all and he reads it warmly but it was just a tiny bit too boring to get stuck in.

Not bad but not what I expected either.

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There are a lot of words I could use to describe this book. Intriguing, introspective, interesting and even enlightening. It's a study on not just the prison system but the officers working in it. It's a really good book especially for those that like books that explore human nature in various situations. I really liked it actually and i think a lot of others will too. However it's not a book for those who might consider themselves to be bleeding-hearted do-gooders as for them it might be shocking and some passages they might not want to believe but for most I'd say it's worth reading.

Cooped up with time to kill doing time

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