Newjack Guarding Sing Sing Essay - 1406 Words

Newjack: Guarding Sing Sing The distressing experience of operating as a prison guard in such a notorious penal facility as New York State’s Sing Sing Penitentiary is one that is unlikely to be desired by one not professionally committed to the execution of prison uniformity. However, the outstanding novel written by Tom Conover illustrates the encounters of a journalist who voluntarily plunged himself into the obscure universe of the men and women paid to spend the better portion of their lives behind prison barriers. In Newjack: Guarding Sing Sing, Conover creates a noteworthy document resonating personal emotional occurrences that nonetheless suggest the cultural sensitivity of a true prison guard. From the standpoint of our studies†¦show more content†¦Most of his time at Sing Sing was consumed being in close contact with the inmates, in dining halls and housing galleries, doing strip searches, searching cells, writing disciplinary infraction reports, and confiscating inmate contraband. I n addition, because they live in an enforced state of near powerlessness, answering to inmates who required support with a seemingly endless range of personal complications occupied much of Conover’s time. Conover’s account of the correctional officer’s role is consistent with those opinions offered by others who have firsthand experience of prison life. Virtually all serious, firsthand interpretations of correctional work define a gap between the training and the realism of the job, official policies and procedures that require routine avoidance, poor associations between line officers and administrators, and the undermining power of stress on professional conduct and personal life. Conover also covers all of this, describing the overwhelming confusion of a new officer’s first days in a crowded housing unit, illustrating the newjack’s reliance on the helpfulness of prisoners, portraying the obvious unfriendliness and unconcern of higher-ranking coworkers, and exhibiting the unavoidability of making critical and even life-threatening blunders in the tumultuous world of the prison. In doing that, Conover assists readers in getting beyond the stereotype of the ruthless guard to see correctionalShow MoreRelatedAnalysis of Ted Conovers Memoir- Newjack Essay923 Words   |  4 PagesNewjack – Ted Conover Newjack is Ted Conover’s personal memoir as a correctional officer in one of New York’s famous maximum security prisons: Sing Sing. The job of a correctional officer consists of long days locking and unlocking cells, moving prisoners to and from various locations while the prisoners beg, aggravate and abuse them. After a short time at the academy and a brief period of on-the-job training, Conover found himself working, often alone and always unarmed, in galleries housingRead MoreAnalysis Of The Book The Guarding Sing Sang By Ted Conover1089 Words   |  5 PagesThe book NewJack: Guarding Sing Sing by Ted Conover is an profound book to read it gave me a great glimpse of how the prison life really is and how you can put yourself in comparing how Hollywood movies or TV shows displays them. Conover discuss about the history of Sing Sing prison since 1826. It was an authentic and straight forward of how the prison life is especially for those who want to pursue as a co rrectional officers. It gave two perspectives one from the guards and the other by the inmatesRead MoreThe Life of a Guard in the Book, NewJack: Guarding Sing Sing, by Ted Conover643 Words   |  3 PagesIn the book NewJack: Guarding Sing Sing, the book discussed the life of a guard. Most people feel that the guards are bad guys in the criminal justice system and with the politics of the criminal justice systems there are many assumptions of the way in which the stereotype of prison guard’s life should be. The author Ted Conover explains first hand on the experiences behind the scenes that many guards experiences throughout their careers that is an untold story of the truth in the prison system.Read MoreImages Of Prison Life And Correctional Officers1932 Words   |  8 Pagesnumerous portrayals of the correctional system there are a few exceptions. For example, Ted Conover’s â€Å"Newjack: Guarding Sing Sing† is an excellent and rare example of the journalists ’ firsthand experiences as an undercover trained correctional officer. Ted Conover, spent a year working as a newjack — the inmate term for a newly-minted New York correctional officer — in New York s Sing Sing prison. Far from the popular belief portrayed in the media the role of a correctional officer is to be responsibleRead MoreAnalysis Of Truman Capote s Cold Blood1868 Words   |  8 Pagesmore depth than traditional journalists, resulting in the reveal of society s greater truths in their books. These greater truths are present in the books In Cold Blood, by Truman Capote, The Monster of Florence, by Douglas Preston, and Newjack: Guarding Sing Sing, by Ted Conover, as well as many articles written by various authors. In Cold Blood, by Truman Capote, gives the reader an in depth view of the investigation surrounding the murders of the Clutters, a family living in Holcomb, Kansas.Read MoreAnalysis Of Ted Conover s Coyotes 1995 Words   |  8 Pages(iDreamBooks.com), Ted Conover is an American author well known for going undercover and actively participating in his chosen field of research (newnewjournalism.com), generally staying in the role for a long period of time such as in â€Å"Newjack: Guarding Sing Sing† (Conover. T. 2000) when he went undercover as a correction officer, or ‘prison guard,’ (Conover. T. 2000) for a year to find the information that he was not able to gather in any other way as he was a journalist. To Conover’s true style