Newjack - Guarding Sing Sing (Electronic book text)

For two of his previous books, the intrepid Ted Conover went underground to experience the disenfranchised lives of railroad hoboes and, later, the dangerous lives of illegal Mexican immigrants. The New York Times has said, "Mr. Conover combines a sociologist's eye for detail with a novelist's sense of drama and compassion. Most recently, he spent a year working as a corrections officer in the New York State prison system. Newjack, his account of that experience, is a work of superior reporting and absolute authenticity. As he struggles to become a good officer, Conover introduces us to Sing Sing's notorious B-Block, where some of the world's most menacing men hurl insults, fists, and feces at guards. We meet cross-gender inmates, mentally ill prisoners, or "bugs," a charismatic, philosophical felon, and other officers -- both fresh-faced "newjacks" like Conover and brutally hardened veterans. He also gives the history of Sing Sing, particularly as the citadel of capital punishment in this country. This book will become a landmark of American journalism -- the definitive presentation of the impasse between the need to imprison criminals and the dehumanization that takes place behind bars.