The Life of a Guard in the Book, NewJack: Guarding Sing Sing, by Ted Conover

For new inmate, the bus ride to prison, the processing at the prison reception center, and the belittling shouts from the inmates are all part of the early stage of what is known as prisonization (Clear, Cole, Petrosino, Reisig, 2015). It is the process whereby newly institutionalized individual are introduced to and come to accept prison lifestyles and criminal values; the learning of convict values, attitudes, roles, and even language (prison argot) (Schamelleger, 2001). The new inmates gradually learn the set of rules of conduct that reflect the

Correctional Officers play a very vital role in the criminal justice field. Their jobs are very dangerous when dealing with inmates that are in jail and prisons. ”The

Specifically, the treatment of the many prisoners at the hands of the guards had really stood out to me. How handcuffs, leg-irons, strip searches, and comments such as “spread’m, Tonto” had become his day to day routine. In just a small section of the book, he shows the attitude that many guards take when dealing with people they are arresting or who are already incarcerated. They disrespect the inmates, not because they have to, but almost because they want to.

The distressing experience of operating as a prison guard in such a notorious penal facility as New York State’s Sing Sing Penitentiary is one that is unlikely to be desired by one not professionally committed to the execution of prison uniformity. However, the outstanding novel written by Tom Conover illustrates the encounters of a journalist who voluntarily plunged himself into the obscure universe of the men and women paid to spend the better portion of their lives behind prison barriers. In Newjack: Guarding Sing Sing, Conover creates a noteworthy document resonating personal emotional occurrences that nonetheless suggest the cultural sensitivity of a true prison guard. From the standpoint of our studies

Ted Conover’s book, New Jack, is about the author's experiences as a rookie guard at Sing Sing prison, in New York, the most troubled maximum security prison. He comes to realize that being a correctional officer isn’t an easy task. This is shown from the beginning when he is required to attend a 7 week training program to become a correctional officer. He comes to realize what inmates have to endure on a daily basis. Throughout his experience into a harsh culture of prison and the exhausting and poor working conditions for officers, he begins to realize that the prison system brutalizes everyone connected to it. New Jack presents new ideas of prisons in the United States in the ways facilities, corrections officers, and inmates function with

People are sentenced to prison as punishment of a crime that has been committed, not for punishment. The job of a prison guard or correctional officer is to help maintain law and order, to maintain security and to manage the health and safety of staff and prisoners. It is a violation for any authority figure to deny

Conover’s purpose in writing this book not only to share his experience as a correctional officer but to also help readers get beyond the stereotype of the brutal guard seen on television and rumors but to see correctional officers as individuals, offering us a chance to understand

Correctional Officer’s have been around for a very long time and were designed to keep major offenders off the street after they have been arrested by the Police. The offenders are put in a holding cell at a Pre Trial Centre awaiting their court date.

Everyone wants respect and inmates look for respect. A lot of the complaints I have seen from inmates is that the officers disrespected them. They feel that the officer does not need to yell, ?get in their face?, and do complete strip searches all the time. IF inmates are treated with a little respect it goes a long way in an inmate being either a ?model or a disruptive? prisoner. It also helps in the

In the case of the California’s Corcoran State Prison the prisoners were being mistreated. The situation that brought this case to the forefront was Dryburgh (2009) found that “Preston Tate was shot and fatally wounded by a corrections officer after Tate and his cellmate fought against two rival Hispanic gang member. Tate death was at the hands of a prison guard prompted two whistle – blowers to approach the FBI with tales of abuse and brutality toward inmates by correction officers”. Moreover, this was not the first time that an inmate had been shot by a correctional officer.

Prison guard positions have not been well-regarded by the masses. The low pay, even lower social status, possibility of attacks, and harsh prison environments support such a notion. Furthermore, workload issues, such as limited recovery time, multiple workloads and high peak loads have created stress among a majority of officers (Schaufeli & Peeters, 2011). Workload issues have been linked to dependence on certain staff and the inability to adequately fill positions (Schaufeli & Peeters, 2011). As a result, the hiring and overreliance on less qualified, undereducated, and non-experienced workers created

The Guard s however showed what was termed the ‘Pathology of Power’ where the participants playing the roles of guards found huge pleasure and enjoyment in their execution of power and sometimes sadistic actions which would explain their willingness to work extra time for no pay and their genuine disappointment when the study ended. Punishments with little or no justification were applied with verbal assaults and in the case of some guards, aggressive physical action. The prison became dirty and inhospitable; bathroom rights became privileges, which could be, and frequently were, denied. Some prisoners were forced to clean toilets with bare hands. Moreover, prisoners endured forced nudity and even sexual humiliation. Experimenters said that approximately one-third of the guards exhibited genuine sadistic tendencies.

Alcatraz prison guards were considered to be among the elite in the Bureau of prisons. They received extensive training in prison procedures and regulations, self defense, conflict resolution, legal requirements, marksmanship, rehabilitation, investigation techniques, bureau policies, and the history of law enforcement (nps.gov).

(2011) studied deviance in the criminal justice system and found that there is very little discussion as to the types of deviant acts committed by correctional employees. Worley referred to Goffman (1961) in his study as identifying prisons as “total institutions”. There are numerous examples in how a prison guard can engage in illegal activities, like guards allowing other prisoners to engage in brutality against one another or guards themselves engage in the brutality, it can also be something as small as guards helping prisoners acquire illegal

A recurring idea explored throughout Prejean’s novel is the varying moral standpoints among each of the prison personnel. The head of Louisiana Department of Corrections, C. Paul Phelps, discusses the role of prison guards in a meeting he has with Prejean. In this quote, Phelps interprets the lack of responsibility many of the prison’s employees hold.