Newjack - Prison guard tells all about Sing Sing.

Ted Conover wanted to follow a new recruit from training at the NY Corrections Officer Academy into the prisons as a “newjack” which is what the prisoners call the new correctional officers on the block. When he was turned down on that idea, he decided to enroll in the program, train, and experience life as an actual newjack.

If you’re not familiar with Conover, then he tends to live his stories. He rode the train rails with homeless men, hung out with illegal immigrants from Mexico, and drove a cab in Aspen to get some of his more memorable stories. Basically, he applies his journalistic skills to living the kind of life he would never have to live if he didn’t decide to. While it might be better to hear these stories direct from someone who had no choice, the chance of finding a solid researcher and writer within such sub cultures would be pretty slim. So, Newjack is NOT out of character for this writer. If it takes “walking the walk” to get the story, then that’s what Conover does.

Most prison guards (now called corrections officers to reflect better and hopefully more adequate training) get a bad rap. While you may see “hero” stories about inmates and how they were wronged from the start or how they grew and deserve a second chance, the general portrayal of guards is that they are a generally slow and mean class of citizens. This is why Conover was curious about the subculture and why he wanted to tackle the story. He wanted to find the truth.

Conover entered the Academy with many other young men (and a few women) who wanted good jobs with security. Government jobs pay decent, include benefits, and are usually steady unless you do something really major and get fired. While it may seem odd to some people that such a job could be a goal in life, it is the reality for many from the upper lower class and lower middle class.

The training was modeled after boot camp for the military. Those who had been in the military fared better than those who had not been so initiated. It’s simply difficult to process why perfectly made beds make a speck of difference or why shoes need to shine like new when they aren’t. It’s just the way of things, and it’s far better (if you want to work in the field) to do as told and not ask questions.

Once Conover crossed the training hurdle, he was tossed over to Sing Sing for his first assignment. In New York, this infamous prison is now basically a stopover before moving on to better assignments closer to home. You do your time, and then you move up the ladder and go to a better place.

Correctional officers are given no information about prisoners. The thought is that knowing certain things would bias the keeper. Officers are also encouraged not to get to know or to interact with prisoners. After all, human nature is to take advantage of any leg up like having a relationship on even the most basic level. I’ve seen this as a professor too. If you cut a student a break, then they are thankful. Then, they expect more of the same but up the ante. It’s a sad statement about humankind, but it does make sense.

Though correctional officers do carry the keys, they don’t always have the upper hand. Inmates have all kinds of tricks for making life miserable for those who are charged with making sure that the convicted pay for crimes committed. A newjack might walk down a catwalk and be pelted with urine or feces. One guy in prison even put such items in his mouth to better aim. Or, an inmate may take a swing if the guard walks too close to the bars.

The really sad part about working in the prison system is that the whole thing is set up to dehumanize not only the criminal but also the caretaker. From the early days when officers beat prisoners with cat-o-nine whips through today when the only way to survive is to look the other way and falsify accounts of what happened, the system encourages very non-human traits.

Conover does a great job of covering what the life of a newjack is like. He includes very detailed accounts of day-to-day happenings and also drops back and picks up historical accounts of the system from the early days. It’s obvious that he does have a background in research and in writing for newspapers. He includes back up and also examples while staying very neutral in his telling of the story.

While the book is solid, it does lack a certain sense of human emotion. If Conover could step back from the assignment and feel this world, then this would be a better book. I guess that would be hard to do that knowing that the assignment is temporary and that the goal is a book. Conover is counting months and days with a light at the end of the tunnel while his co-workers are looking at years of the same.

The reactions to the book were pretty positive from fellow correctional officers though the brass were none too pleased as would be expected. It’s certainly a valuable piece of research that benefits anyone interested in the penal system in the nation and especially those directly involved.

Newjack did get the National Book Critics award for nonfiction and was a Pulitzer finalist. I’m not surprised it didn’t sweep the Pulitzer, since it does fall short in some ways. There is a fine line between really good and great, and this one does not tip over to greatness.

If you have any interest in or connection to the corrections system, then I would suggest this book. If not, then it is pretty tedious in parts. The “heart” needed to make this a universal story is not there, but it’s still a fine account of a subculture in our society.