Newjack, Ted Conover
Newjack, Ted Conover
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Newjack
Guarding Sing Sing

Author: Ted Conover

Narrator: Ted Conover

Unabridged: 11 hr 10 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download (DRM Protected)

Published: 04/25/2005

Synopsis

Newjack: Guarding Sing Sing is the story of Conover's rookie year as a guard at Sing Sing. It is a nerve-jangling account of his passage into the storied prison and the culture of its guards—both fresh-faced "newjacks" like Conover and brutally hardened veterans. As he struggles to be a good officer, Conover angers inmates, dodges blows, works to balance decency with toughness, and participates in prison rituals—strip frisks, cell searches, cell "extractions"—that exact a toll on inmates and officers alike.The tale begins with the corrections academy and ends with the flames and smoke of New Year's Eve on Conover's floor of the notorious B-Block. Along the way, Conover also recounts the history of Sing Sing, from draconian early punishment, to fame as the citadel of capital punishment, to its present status as New York State's "bottom of the barrel" prison.This audiobook will become a landmark of American journalism—the definitive presentation of the impasse between the need to imprison criminals and the dehumanization of inmates and guards—that almost inevitably takes place behind bars."Newjack is an astonishing work by a gifted—and dedicated—journalist. Ted Conover takes us into the dangerous, sad, amusing and instructive soul of one of America's best known prisons." —Tom Brokaw

About Ted Conover

Ted Conover is the author of several books including Newjack: Guarding Sing Sing (winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award and a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize) and Rolling Nowhere: Riding the Rails with America’s Hoboes. His writing has appeared in The New York Times Magazine, The Atlantic, The New Yorker, and National Geographic. Recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, he is Distinguished Writer-in-Residence in the Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute at New York University. He lives in New York City.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Larry on August 26, 2012

I like books where the author immerses him or herself in a situation and then writes from his or her own experience. Barbara Ehrenreich has done this for several of her books. After my mother was sentenced to jail for civil disobedience, she has a much better understanding of who is in our jails and......more

Goodreads review by Elliot on June 16, 2011

Prison memoirs by prisoners are plentiful, shocking and tragically predictable; few have narrated the working life of prison guards, doing a “life sentence eight hours at a time.” I read 4/5 of this excellent book in a day—I highly recommend it. The author, Ted Connover, goes through the process of......more

Goodreads review by Brendan on July 07, 2011

Much much more than participant journalism, Conover's ambitious yearlong journey at Sing Sing as a corrections officer (don't call him a prison guard) produced this nonfiction masterpiece. Over the course of NEWJACK (prison slang for officer trainee), the reader sees Conover undergo many transitions......more

Goodreads review by amanda on January 24, 2021

3.5 a bit too much preaching about how cops and COs arent bad. author literally states that it’s not their fault because the job changes them. uhhh okay. he acknowledges a lot of his privilege but yikes. it’s enjoyable however and a product of its time.......more

Goodreads review by Molly on July 22, 2013

While volunteering in a maximum security prison, I found I was as nervous around the guards as I was the prisoners. In fact, I did not really care for prison guards at all, but now that I came across this excellent piece of investigative journalism while touring the Eastern State Penitentiary, I am......more

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