Newjack: Guarding Sing Sing

Ted Conover, the intrepid author of Coyotes, about the world of illegal Mex ican immigrants, spent a year as a prison guard at Sing Sing. Newjack, his account of that experience, is a milestone in American journalism: a book t hat casts new and unexpected light on this nation's prison crisis and sets a new standard for courageous, in-depth reporting. At the infamous Sing Sing, once a model prison but now New York State's mos t troubled maximum-security facility, Conover goes to work as a gallery off icer, working shifts in which he alone must supervise scores of violent inn er-city felons. He soon learns the impossibility of doing his job by the bo ok. What should he do when he feels the hair-raising tingle that tells him a fight is about to break out When he loses a key in a tussle When a pris oner punches him in the head Little by little, he learns to walk the fine line between leniency and tyranny that distinguishes a good guard. Along the way, we meet a cast of characters that includes a tough but appea ling supervisor named Mama Cradle; a range of mentally ill prisoners, or "b ugs"; some of the jail's more flamboyant transvestites; and a philosophical , charismatic inmate who points out to Conover that the United States is bu ilding new prisons for future felons who are now only four and five years o ld. Conover also gives us a history of Sing Sing (it was built by inmates, and for decades was the nation's capital of capital punishment) in a chapte r that serves as a brilliant short course in America's penal system. With empathy and insight, Newjack tells the story of a harsh, hidden world and dramatizes the conflict betwee.

Product Info

ISBN: 0375501770

ISBN-13: 9780375501777

Publisher: Random House

Year: 2000

Type: Used

Binding: Hardcover

Seller Info

InfinityBooksJapan

Address: 1F Komagata Heights Bldg Tokyo,

Website: https://www.infinitybooksjapan.com

Country: Japan