Newjack Guarding Sing Sing Sing Chapter Summary

The novel NewJack:Guarding Sing Sing takes place in a NewYork maximum-security facility. The author Ted Conover takes the role as the main character. His idea was to shadow a recruit at the New York State Corrections Officer Academy so he knew what it would be like to be a corrections officer. This was thought to bridge the gap between corrections and the population. When Conover’s request to shadow a recruit was denied, he decided to apply for a job as a prison officer. So began his odyssey at Sing Sing, the state’s most troubled maximum-security facility. He took entrance exams, endured seven long weeks of military style boot-camp training, then experienced hell for almost a year as a newjack. Newjack is a term used for the new correction

Power and authority can be a dangerous thing depending on who has it, and this novel demonstrates this. In the novel it shows that guards have a short leash when it comes to what they will tolerate. There is no respect between the correction officers and inmates. Inmates test incoming prisoners to see how they will fit into the prison structure. The same goes for the guards. For example on the first day, Conover was punched in the head as he walked by a cell. The other guards would not step in and help the newJack. Prison guards regard prisoners as the lowest form of life; prisoners feel the same about the guards. The first thing they told Conover is to never talk to the inmates. With that said, it is hard to build a line of trust if you do not engage with one another. Conover describes the facility as a warehouse; having different kinds of criminals under one roof. One day Conover was observing the visiting room, reflecting on his mixed sympathies with the prisoners, as opposed to his colleagues.

"It was all about absence, wasn't it-- the absence of imprisoned men from the lives of the people who loved them; the absence of love in prison. And also-- what you could never forget-- the absence in the hearts of decent people, the holes that criminals punched in their lives, the absence of the things they took: money, peace of mind, health, and

By Conover’s perspective it does not, but hopes some day it will. It is significantly cheaper to just lock away a prisoner, than to use programs and try to rehabilitate them. In the novel they don't even try to rehabilitate prisoners "we rule with the inmates' consent,"" says one instructor, while another acknowledges that ""rehabilitation is not our job.”( this point in 2000, prisons were overpopulated and the state did not have a solution. They did do not try and help people stay out of prison and the inmate Larson puts it best stating “Anyone planning a prison they’re not going to build for 10-15 years is planning for a child, planning a prison for somebody who's a child right now. so you see? They've already given up on that child!” (Newjack, page 233). A study done showed that over 40% of inmates end up back in jail (Travis, 2000). A big part of this is poverty. Most criminals when they get out of jail, have no where else to turn but to crime. Conover finds that there is some good within the walls of Sing Sing and that a mind can change for the better. Not all hope is lost in Sing Sing as there are people in there who just made one mistake, and now they are paying the