Newjack: Guarding Sing Sing, Library Edition [Paperback]

Ted Conover (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: Alfred a Knopf Inc (2001)
• ASIN: B000KXTK9O
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (120 customer reviews)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

95 of 97 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Very Accurate Account, June 13, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Newjack: Guarding Sing Sing (Hardcover)

As someone who spent 4 years working in Sing Sing, I believe I knew Mr. Conover while he was at Sing Sing and while I was not an Officer, I think I remember our paths crossing several times. I observed many of the same situations, emotions and observations as the author. In addition to his dead on portrayal of life behind bars, it was good to read about how the environment can have negative emotional effects on those who work there. It's about time someone told the truth about what goes on inside Sing Sing and how it can demoralize those who are simply good people trying to do job and earn a paycheck. The NYS Department of Corrections as a whole is in need of total reformation and Sing Sing is a prime example of why. I was skeptical when I picked up the book, as every account of prison life which I had previously read or seen seemed inaccuarate to me or slanted by inmate or administrative/political bias. After the first couple of chapters it was clear to me that this was a book written by someone with no agenda other then to tell the truth about life behind the walls at Sing Sing.

37 of 40 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Doing Time at Sing Sing..., November 1, 2000

By 

Caz - See all my reviews

This review is from: Newjack: Guarding Sing Sing (Hardcover)

A person needs to have a certain determination to do what author Ted Conover did: take a year out from one's life to go undercover and put one's neck on the line, literally.

Investigative journalist Conover took a big risk - his career, his family life, and even his life - to get the scoop on what life is like inside New York State's infamous Sing-Sing Prison... from a Correctional Officer's point of view. It makes for a most fascinating read.

Ted had tried the traditional route to get inside and have a look at life from behind bars, his target being the notorious Sing-Sing Penetentiary. However, he soon discovered that the media is not a welcome bunch and the stalwart institution (like all other max-security prisons throughout the country) makes sure that the press never get inside to have a peek. Not one to give up easily (and smelling a real story), Conover came up with the plan to go in undercover, as it were, as a legitimate, bona-fide, State-trained Correctional Officer.

And that is just what he did.

He went the route of CO training - a boot camp of sorts, a rough ride indeed - finding it very demanding and obtuse. Still, he persevered to the end, graduated, and waited for his call-up. He didn't have to wait long. The turnover rate of COs is high, and the inaugural training ground for almost all COs in the State of New York is the infamous prison he was targeting.

The book, NewJack: Guarding Sing Sing is the chronicle of Conover's year (he dedicated an entire year to experience the fulness of the prison experience) as a CO at the institution. The contents of the book are, in many ways, not surprising. Life is hard behind bars, for inmates and COs alike. There is a palpable aggression, a frustration at the procedures, and the interaction between inmate and prison guard (errrr, sorry, correctional officer), inmate and inmate, and CO and CO is perpetually tense and suspicious.

Those who are crime or psychology buffs will dig their teeth into this read and come away satisfied. Conover has done an outstanding job of revealing what everyday life - on the job and in the cell - is all about at Sing Sing. He gives wonderful description of the compound itself and what living conditions are really like inside. His historical account of the raising and implementing of the prision is, in itself, worth buying the book.

As well, he's done a great job on revealing the personality of Sing Sing - from the inception of the place right up to present day. It's an institution that has a rich and varied history, if not pristine and stellar. Sing Sing is a bastion of punishment, not all of it good or right or noble, and Conover has documented and presented such with a pretty fair stroke of the pen.

Though I found his commentary on the prison population a little heavy-handed and hyperbolic on occasion, I'm sure that couldn't be helped when the man was laying his life on the line everyday, going in to control the masses. He did, however, paint a fair picture of the life of a CO on the inside and outside. It's a hard job, and it has hard men and women occupying it.

And Conover made it to the end of the year. He survived the job, in all its quirks, and has given the rest of us on the outside a very rare glimpse at what life is like on the inside. And what a unique perspective it is, too.

I recommend this book to one and all who want to explore penology from a more relaxed, less academic, view and accounting. Great read, start to finish.

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars ENTHRALLING INVESTIGATIVE REPORTING, January 4, 2001

By 

Gerard T. McGuire - See all my reviews

This review is from: Newjack: Guarding Sing Sing (Hardcover)

Conover does what few authours would dare try. He becomes the subject of his book and the result in the best nonfiction work I have ever read. There are many authors who try to write prison accounts and fail because of their inability to relate to the subject. There are also correctional officers who think that they can write and publish less than interesting books as a result. Conover is an established author who became a New York State Correctional Officer and worked in Sing Sing for a year. That is the perfect example of in depth reporting.

Newjack not only gives you the typical prison stories, but in it Conover relays the subtle things that escape the attention of those who have never worked inside a prison. Conover address the different assignments given to COs often causing them to be outnumbered in massive amounts. He covers overcrowding, prison violence, dirty guards, and even the emotional tolls of the job.

This book holds interest like no other work of nonfiction before it. Conover should be applauded for this book. It is a hallmark of investigative journalism. As a result I have picked up a copy of his book COYOTES and cant wait to start it. A solid five star book that is a must read for nonfiction and true crime fans.