Rating: 
Summary: Bits and Pieces
Review: Conover is a talented writer, and many of the individual chapters here are wonderful. Incorporating the history of Sing Sing--and, to an extent, of American jails in general--into his present-day depiction of the prison is a nice touch. The book should be read by anyone interested in how our recent mania for incarceration is affecting society.If anything is missing here, it's a sense of an overall framework or development to the story. Individual vignettes are often powerful, but we rarely get any sense of where they fit into Conover's year as a guard or what part they play in his changing attitudes and ideas. This may be a necessary evil resulting from the grind of endlessly repetitious eight hour shifts, but for me it keeps the book from five stars.
Rating: 
Summary: Prison from the Inside Out
Review: I finished a borrowed copy of "Newjack" at midnight and immediately logged on to purchase a copy for my brother. It couldn't wait until morning. "Newjack" is that good. "Newjack" immediately reminded me of "Cadillac Desert" or "Fast Food Nation" in that Conover draws us into the hidden and corrupt underbelly of American life. And yet, the book is more than a fascinating expose of prison life. "Newjack" is a story of Conover himself and he comes to grips day by day with the human face of prison life. So, cross "Fast Food Nation" with Bill Bryson's "A Walk in the Woods" and you have my favorite book of the year, "Newjack".
Rating:
Summary: Conover does it again
Review: This is a great book, period. An in depth look into the lives of corrections officers and criminals, this book reminds us that there are actual human beings working and living behind those locked gates. Conover's journalistic style and carefully documented observations lend a glaring light of authenticity and make for an interesting read. Prison life is an aspect of everday existence that is not often thought about seriously by those on the outside. This book changes that and raises important questions that either require significant soul-searching to validate views on this issue, or a whole new outlook. Conover's writing style has clearly matured since "Coyotes" and makes this book a treat to read. I can't wait for his next project!
Rating:
Summary: Solid
Review: The concept (infiltrating a prison by getting hired as a guard) is very interesting and daring. The writting is competent and the anecdotes are very interesting. All in all, an interesting book.
Rating:
Summary: Great book.
Review: Great book. With the author's combined backgrounds in journalism and anthropology, it's hard to see how he could have gone wrong. Add to that a good eye for picking an interesting subject, and you've got a winner.
Rating:
Summary: outstanding
Review: Ted Conover couldn't get into the New York Corrections Officer Academy as a reporter, so he got in as a cadet, then worked for a year as a CO in Sing Sing. Conover tells his story very well and raises important questions about corrections in the US today. I would recommend this book to anybody interested in the state of prisons today, anybody interested in excellent nonfiction writing, anyone who might be considering a job in law enforcement or corrections, or anyone who has a relative in prison. Conover makes few judgements, keeps his politics behind the story, and went above and beyond to put this book together.
Rating:
Summary: Very scary
Review: It is unbelievable that Mr. Conover would go undercover to be a prison guard at one of America's most notorious prisons. His story is chilling to the bone-all of the violence, threats to officers, politics and wrongdoings. Even more so is his eventual physical and mental reactions to this stressful occupation. We always hear the prisoners' point of view but never the guards'. Thanks to Mr. Conover, we can commend those who are willing to guard no matter what the risks.
Rating:
Summary: Exceptional Reporting
Review: If there is one word that best sums up Connover's account of his experience within Sing Sing it is this: honesty. While it would have been easy to write a "scathing indictment" of the American penal system, Connover instead gives us straightforward reporting on his experience. What this brings to light are the nuanced, and distorted, shades of humanity that exist within Sing Sing's walls. These men, many of whom are rapists and murderers- society's worst nightmares, also keep spiders and birds for pets within their cells. Their attitude towards corrections officers hardens or softens in direct relation to the amount of respect they are shown. They are at once awful, frightening, intriguing, and pathetic. Connover paints this picture with measured brush strokes. His insights into his own feelings about working in a prison come off as exceptionally sincere. Perhaps the book's most disturbing moment comes at the end, when inmates start large fires in the cell blocks on New Year's Eve. The scene is very beautiful and very, very sad. The world could benefit from more reporting (in all media) that is this reasoned, honest, and fair toward its subject matter.
Rating:
Summary: Authentic
Review: I taught in prisons for almost a decade, and Mr. Conover's book is among the most authentic books that I have come across. His writing is so clear, so precise, that you can practically taste the prison grime. Moreover, he gives souls to men and women who work a thankless job. CO's are routinely despised by cons, and, in my experience, were never very well treated by their bosses-- the suits, the prison administrators. Mr. Conover is honest enough to talk about his own transformation-- from idealist to cynic to, ultimately, a CO who wished to perpetrate violence against a particularly troublesome inmate. That's when he decided to leave his job and write the book, and his readers reap the reward. This is an emotionally brave piece of work, and one that is exquisitely written.
Rating:
Summary: A Look at the Penal System
Review: This is one of the best books I've had the pleasure to read in some time. Ted Conover is to be commended for writing this insider's view on the current condition of America's penal system. Not only is Conover a fantastic writer, he also is to be commended for his bravery in writing this book. To get an accurate view of his topic, he actually went "undercover", so to speak, and became a full-time corrections officer so that he could immerse himself in his topic. This guy has certainly got gumption! I couldn't imagine working in a prison, let alone as an officer right in the front lines of the worst parts of the prison. To top it off, Conover didn't work at some country club prison, but went to Sing Sing, one of the worst prisons in the country. I was so fascinated by this book that I read it in about a day. It was so hard to put down that I wanted to call in sick to work so I could keep going. It isn't accounts of blood and guts that propel this book, although there are some fights and other nasty incidents that Conover mentions during the course of the book. What are fascinating are the characterizations of both fellow officers and convicts. Conover begins his book by giving the reader a detailed account of his training program at the Academy, where recruits are taught how to become correctional officers. As in many jobs, training and reality are often much different. The same picture emerges at the Academy. Recruits are told to never speak to inmates, which Conover soon finds is an impossible directive to follow when he begins working at Sing Sing. The problem with training vs. reality here is that recruits will be dealing with convicted felons and will face life threatening situations everyday. It soon becomes apparent that new officers aren't learning the things they need to know to do their jobs. And what a job it is! Conover's descriptions of his first day on the job are chilling. He is thrown into the prison and basically left to his own devices. Senior officers are openly hostile to the "newjacks" and won't help or answer questions. Even worse, Conover is in charge of watching a gallery, or section, of the cellblock. His job is to make sure inmates are doing what they are supposed to be doing. He also has to make sure inmates that are under "keeplock", or confinement to their cells, stay there. And he has to be available to open gates for other officers who need to respond to emergencies in other parts of the prison. Without a doubt, there are too few officers to effectively control the inmates. One problem is the seniority system, which allows long time officers to transfer to safer facilities, leaving the most dangerous jobs to new recruits. In other words, people with less than a year of experience are guarding society's most dangerous members. Conover also talks about some of the inmates, such as a few transsexuals and a black intellectual whom Conover develops a rapport with. Conover also discusses the stress of the job, and that even he experienced it within a few months on the job. Conover even has a few situations with his own family that revealed to him how dangerous this job is to the officers. The work of a corrections officer is impossible to leave at the prison. One of the best parts of the book is the history of Sing Sing prison, from its foundation under brutal warden Elam Lynds to the somewhat benevolent rule of Charles Mott Osborne and Lewis Lawes. One of my only regrets about this book is we never find out what happens to the people Conover writes about. I would have been interested to find out what Larson, the black intellectual, had to say about Conover's book. To get his job and do his research, Conover had to go completely underground. No one knew he was an author or that he was going to write a book about his experiences. If the system had known about his project, Conover would never have been allowed to work in the penal system. I'm sure some people in the book were disgusted when they learned what Conover had done. I would have liked to read about that. I guess in the final analysis, most of the people in this book are still doing the same thing; serving time at Sing Sing. That goes for both officers and inmates. Go out of your way to read this book. It is extremely informative and well worth the time.
| 
