Overview Of The Correctional Officer Community In Ted Conover's Newjack

Newjack: Guarding Sing Sing describes the experience of a new correctional officer who works at the Sing Sing prison in Ossining, NY. In the book, Ted Conover goes into detail about the daily trials of a CO and life within the prison walls. Within these descriptions he develops a clear picture of the distinct communities which develop within the prison. Communities “are typically defined by a geographic area; however, they can also be based on shared interests or characteristics such as religion,race, age, or occupation” (Community Needs Assessment, 2013). In Newjack, the most prominent communities that are examined in depth are the inmate community and the correctional officer community with the correctional officer community being the main community of interest. The two combined make up the overall prison community.

Community

Community is built within the prison system through shared environments and

Conover discusses the differences in diversity between his class at the academy, the COs that work at Sing Sing and the inmate population. The vast majority of the inmates were people of color, primarily african american males, while only 7 of those in Conover’s session were black (Conover, 2001, p. 23). On his first day on the job, he also mentions feeling as though his group of new COs were particularly white even when compared to the COs on the job. The diversity of the COs working in the prison play an important role in the power dynamics and social interactions within the prison.When being told what to do by COs, many of the inmates believed they were being discriminated against because of their color. Because a lot of the COs were from the city as opposed to rural New York, they were more accustomed to the diverse nature of the inmates. For those who didn’t understand, it may have been difficult for them to understand how to interact with the inmates that were different from