Newjack – Ted ConoverNewjack is the personal memoir of Ted Conover as a correctional officer in one of New York's famous maximum security prisons: Sing Sing. A correctional officer's job involves long days locking and unlocking cells, moving prisoners to and from various locations while prisoners beg, aggravate, and abuse them. After a short stay at the academy and a brief period of field training, Conover found himself working, often alone and always unarmed, in galleries housing sixty or more inmates. He has heard of many stories that happen in prison. Stories include inmates beating other inmates and setting their cell on fire, one inmate being beaten by correctional officers after hitting an officer in the head with a broomstick. Surprisingly, there are even cases where voluntary sexual relations take place between female employees and inmates. This is truly a welcoming work for “newjacks” and for readers. On top of this, supervisors do not mentor or guide new agents and agents on one shift push problems onto the next. Conover sees and realizes that correctional workers are very flexible characters, neither good nor bad, but who must deal with stress and problems in a well-organized manner. As Conover points out, at Sing Sing this goes against the ability of staff to know the prisoners. It is ridiculous that there are problems that prison administrators clearly could have solved but don't, instead they care more about the relationship between inmates and officers. In particular, incentives for better supervision and greater support for effective staff are clearly needed. Conover repeatedly inferred that when something bad happens, there will always be another person pointing the finger at another o...... middle of paper... ...they not only want to be respected, but also to be able to survive in the prison environment. In prison, there are so many inmates and no two inmates are the same. The detainees will disrespect the police by insulting them, which will cause them difficult times, but it is also the opposite. It's a disturbing image after learning that sometimes it's the police officer's fault and not just the inmates' fault. There will be times when officers and inmates engage in conspiracy crime and times when female staff engage in sexual acts with an inmate. Conover wrote this book to allow the public to see prison society from many different perspectives and to give future officers an early look at how to become a correctional officer. Works Cited Conover, Ted. Newjack: Keeping Sing Sing. 1st ed. New York: Random House, 2000. 331. Print.