"These were the guys, the source of my pain, the source of their own pain, the source of their victims' and of their families' pain. My first few days, they had seemed like one big green-clad undifferentiated mass. Now, of course, they all had faces to me."

Conover entered my radar with his reading of the epilogue of Newjack on The Moth. I went into the book thinking that it would be like that: these bizarre, dramatic prison-life stories, chapters of gang crime and corruption and all the other nonsense that coupled those New Years' fires. And while it was peppered with scenes like this - staff abusing inmates, hearsay of guard/inmate relationships, and the mystery of that 16-inch shank (sword???) - it thrived instead in its nuance and the everyday stresses (and amusements) of Conover's term as CO.

The introduction sets up him going into the job to try and see the cracks in the foundation of the prison system, but (as cheesy as it sounds) it ends up being a complete search for the truth on every detail. Instead of making an excuse for all prison guards or a sob story for the abuse of the inmates, Newjack exposes every last dark corner of Sing Sing, every dangerous or heartfelt or darkly funny anecdote, and leaves the sentencing up to the reader.

Granted, his intentions are repeated at the end of the book, but it never sounds authoritative or as if there's only one side to every issue.

I also appreciated how honest Conover is. He talks just as much about when he was kind & skilled as when he was unfair & incompetent.
Instead of just someone looking in, he becomes a character all his own: he presents all his flaws, the instances where he humiliated himself, and how he began to struggle as a "free man" during his own term at Sing Sing. While humanizing him, his reflection that came from being outside Sing Sing while writing made him even judge his past self - he acknowledges the stress that was put on him, but never presents it as justification for the behavior of guards.

It definitely didn't rely on dramatics or violence or tragic inmate stories, but instead through little bits of events and quotes from inmates/guards with a whole spectrum of attitudes and outlooks, built something completely immersive and honest. Right, there weren't gallery fires every few chapters, but for all the seemingly mundane details about locking in hundreds of inmates, there were many small but incredibly powerful moments, both from his own musings and the lives of inmates that he glimpsed into.

tl;dr: a book has never given me such secondhand stress as this one did and I love it all the more for it ( )

Highly detailed and mostly engaging, "Newjack" is a solid read. If you're interested in how the prison system works and what life inside looks like, read this book.

It drags at times when Conover gets too detailed in his day-to-day labours, but at its best when he describes the history of the electric chair or characters like Larson, who I could only picture as Snoop Dogg. He gives guards and inmates a fair shake. ( )

A very interesting and thought provoking book written undercover. Conover strikes the perfect balance between objectivism and sentimentalism. It's a bit dated - it was published in 2000, although I found most parts still very much relevant today. Worthwhile for anyone concerned with the growing prison industrial complex and the impacts of that on society. ( )

Pretty cool to see how far Ted Conover will go to get a story. Since the prison system wouldn't let him in as a journalist to write this book, he actually became a correction's officer at the famous New York prison, Sing Sing. Good read for anyone interested in the prison system. ( )

3.5 stars. Although a brave attempt at eyewitness journalism, I never really felt the immediate danger and uncertainty that must surely accompany the job of a corrections officer. ( )