false http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1170403092m/53225.jpg 53225 5 Most 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: "I wanted to hear 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</I> 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. <p> 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 "incident" 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: <blockquote> 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 like 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. </blockquote> And not taking to it nicely often involves violence. Indeed, the constant potential for violence on any scale makes even humdrum assignments dangerous. It's astonishing that more <I>doesn't</I> happen, given that the majority of the 1,800 inmates have been convicted of violent felonies: murder, manslaughter, rape, robbery, assault, kidnapping, burglary, arson. But beneath the simmering rage rests an unexpected sensitivity that Conover captures brilliantly. After encountering a Hispanic inmate with a tattoo of a heartbreaking passage from <I>The Diary of Anne Frank</I> on his back, he writes: "It was easier to stay incurious as an officer. Under the inmates' surface bluster, their cruelty and selfishness, was almost always something ineffably sad." Ultimately, the emphasis of Conover's work is on the toll prison exacts--most immediately on the jailed and their jailers, but also on a society that puts both there in increasing numbers. <I>--Gwen Bloomsburg</I> 2886812 12 6 2000 Newjack: Guarding Sing Sing total:537|5:153|4:266|3:105|2:12|1:1| 537 2169 757 96 5 1 false false Wed Mar 26 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Sun Mar 09 07:47:21 -0700 2008 Thu Mar 27 05:56:17 -0700 2008 more...]]> 4 1 false false Mon Dec 22 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Tue Dec 16 04:38:12 -0800 2008 Tue Dec 23 04:28:30 -0800 2008 more...]]> 4 0 false false Sun Mar 01 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Wed Mar 18 18:34:35 -0700 2009 Wed Mar 18 18:45:11 -0700 2009 more...]]> 3 0 false false Sat Oct 24 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Mon Oct 19 21:55:26 -0700 2009 Sat Oct 24 09:55:46 -0700 2009
Ted does a great job at maintaining an unbiased report, pointing out the paradoxes of the prison system ...more...]]> 5 0 false false Tue Feb 17 09:41:38 -0800 2009 Tue Feb 17 09:45:08 -0800 2009 more...]]> 5 0 false false Sun Aug 10 22:21:57 -0700 2008 Thu Jan 01 12:53:33 -0800 2009 more...]]> 5 0 false false Fri Jun 27 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Fri Jun 27 14:56:02 -0700 2008 Fri Jun 27 14:58:52 -0700 2008 more...]]> 5 0 false false Sat Nov 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Sun Jan 04 08:25:37 -0800 2009 Sun Jan 04 08:37:36 -0800 2009 more...]]> 3 0 false false Wed Jul 08 13:05:57 -0700 2009 Wed Jul 08 13:09:36 -0700 2009 more...]]> 5 0 false false Sun Oct 25 23:17:31 -0700 2009 Sun Oct 25 23:17:36 -0700 2009 more...]]> 5 0 false false Wed Feb 01 00:00:00 -0800 2006 Thu May 17 07:24:08 -0700 2007 Thu May 17 07:25:01 -0700 2007 more...]]> 4 1 false false Fri May 01 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Thu Apr 30 09:09:39 -0700 2009 Fri May 01 09:21:04 -0700 2009 Inside: Life Behind Bars in America by Michael G. Santos, which is a look at penitentiary life from the viewpoint of the inmate...more...]]> 0 0 false false Sun Sep 13 09:39:24 -0700 2009 Sun Sep 20 14:38:17 -0700 2009
I'm on chapter 2 but the premise of the book is about a journalist who, when denied the opportunity to shadow a recruit in the field of correctio...more...]]> 4 0 false false Tue May 06 09:16:28 -0700 2008 Tue May 06 09:43:42 -0700 2008
...more...]]> 4 0 false false Fri Jul 01 00:00:00 -0700 2005 Thu Nov 12 14:29:34 -0800 2009 Thu Nov 12 14:31:45 -0800 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Wed Apr 22 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Wed Apr 08 05:25:35 -0700 2009 Thu Apr 23 07:26:19 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Mon Jul 06 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Tue Jul 07 12:19:00 -0700 2009 Tue Jul 07 12:23:54 -0700 2009 4 0 false false Mon Apr 06 15:51:04 -0700 2009 Mon Apr 06 15:53:16 -0700 2009 5 0 false false Tue Dec 02 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Mon Dec 15 16:45:34 -0800 2008 Mon Dec 15 16:47:08 -0800 2008 4 0 false false Sun Mar 08 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Mon Mar 02 10:46:04 -0800 2009 Sun Mar 08 19:36:45 -0700 2009 http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=53225