Ted Conover's Life As A Correction Officer In 'Newjack'

As I read NewJack: Guarding Sing Sing, I found it to be tedious but also very enlightening. I believed the main theme to be about the life as a Correction Officer. The author, Ted Conover, wanted to discuss the prison system from the Correction Officer's point of view. Many books, movies, and documentaries display the prison life from the inmate's point of view. Conover wanted to show that even Correction Officers can experience hardships through the prison system. Conover also wanted to write about the place where values of the profession were implemented and the idea of profiling a new recruit, hence the title "NewJack" which stands for a new recruit starting in the system. Conover discusses in the book how even the correction officers themselves

He wants to be accurate in his findings but is turned down by the DOCS. Viewing the situation from a journalist and anthropological point of view, he decides to become a recruit himself. What better way to get accurate information than to write about what you've experienced. He spends a year as a new recruit correction officer at Sing Sing. Conover enters the academy where he is exposed to aggression and abuse; a place where confrontation and violence are common. He describes it to be like a boot camp where every five seconds you are getting screamed at and made fun of in front of everyone. He had to learn CPR and take first-aid classes. He had to do two hours of physical training every afternoon and pass physical training in the last week. He also had to learn to use the baton, how to fight hand-to-hand combat (defensive tactics), he had to qualify on the shooting range, and lastly, be exposed to tear gas themselves and learn how to fire gas guns (chp. 2). Conover wondered why corrections had such a negative stigma and negative stereotypes. He wondered if corrections was a place where people work there because they are predisposed to violence. He soon found out after these