Will Thurston Question 1 Popular culture is a peculiar entity. In a culture where writers spend immense amounts of time and energy exploring the character intricacies of criminals, depictions of correctional officers are almost constantly unflattering and one-sided. Correctional officers are almost always portrayed as the antagonist. They are described as inherently brutal and mindlessly overbearing, as shallow characters without redeeming qualities. Conover sees correctional officers as multifaceted beings, neither inherently good nor bad, but as common people trying as we all do to behave well in demanding situations. In Newjack, Ted leaves his readers with the sense that for most officers accomplishment is more a matter of controlling the contradictions of genuine sympathy and warranted fury than conquering the kind of sadism portrayed in popular films. Question 2 How can prisons brutalize more than just the inmates? How does correctional work dehumanize officers? I believe that prisons can sometimes brutalize its guards as well as inmates. Now the reason I said sometimes...
I feel that this book gives a rough, inspiring and passionate warning that the rush to imprison offenders hurts the guards as well as the guarded. Conover reminds us that when we treat prisoners like the garbage of society, we are bound to treat prison staff as garbage men -- best out of sight, their own dirt surpassed only by the dirt they handle. Conover says in one part of his book, “Eventually admitting that being in a position of power and danger brings out a side of myself I don’t like.” I feel both prisoners and officers deserve better.
Newjack is Ted Conover’s personal memoir as a correctional officer in one of New York’s famous maximum security prisons: Sing Sing. The job of a correctional officer consists of long days locking and unlocking cells, moving prisoners to and from various locations while the prisoners beg, aggravate and abuse them. After a short time at the academy and a brief period of on-the-job training, Conover found himself working, often alone and always unarmed, in galleries housing sixty or more inmates. He heard of many stories that happen in prison. Stories include inmates beating inmates and burning their cell house, an inmate who was beaten by correctional officers after striking an officer in the head with a broom handle. Surprisingly, there are even some instances where there are voluntary sexual encounters between female staff and inmates. It is really a welcoming job for the “newjacks” and for the readers. On top of that, supervisors do not mentor or guide new officers and officers on one shift push problems off onto the next. Conover sees and realizes that correctional workers are very flexible characters, neither good nor bad, but must cope with stress and problems in a well-organized manner. As Conover points out, that at Sing Sing is against the possibility of staff getting to know prisoners. It is ridiculous to see that there are problems that prison administrators clearly could have solved but do not, instead, they care more about the inmates and officer’s relationship. In particular, enticements for better supervision and more support for effective staff are clearly needed.
Lappin, H. G., & Greene, J. (2006). Are prisons just? In C. Hanrahan (Ed.), Opposing Viewpoints: America’s prisons (pp. 51-98). Detroit: Bonnie Szumski.
Ted Conover, an investigative journalist decided to investigate the conditions within Sing Sing Prison in Ossining, New York. Taking his investigation to a new level, Conover applied to work as a corrections officer. This decision came after being repeatedly denied the opportunity to chronicle the life of a corrections officer in training by the New York State Department of Corrections. He used this experience to author his book Newjack: Guarding Sing Sing and give a first-hand account of life as a corrections officer. Conover goes on to describe the life of a corrections officer going through his first year of training and adjusting to the conditions within the prison. He further describes the interaction between corrections officer and inmate and how these interactions affected his own life.
The correctional subculture is not described as extensively as the police subculture; however, many elements of misconduct and criminal activities are similar (Pollock, 2014). The parallelism of corruption between the police and correctional officer are as follows: (1) use of force; (2) acceptance of gratuities from inmates; (3) mistreatment/sexual coercion of inmates; and (4) abuse of authority for personal gains (Pollock, 2014). According to Pardue et al. (2011), there are two types of sexual coercion found within the prison subculture and they are as follows: (1) coercion between convicts; and (2) coercion between convicts and staff members (p. 289). The Department of Corrections is aware of staff sexual abuse and harassment of women prisoners, and they have been playing “catch up” to accommodate the challenges of this persisting problem (Clear et al., 2013, p.
There are two different kinds of influences on prison misconduct, there is the combined characteristics of the inmates themselves, and the combined characteristics of the staff in control of them (Camp, Gaes, Langan, Saylor (2003). Prison misconduct has been classified into significant fields related to drug use, violence, property offenses, prison accountability and escapes, security-related offenses, security offenses interfering with daily operations, along with a residual category (Camp, Gaes, Langan, Saylor (2003). Misconduct spoils the effective procedure of the correctional institution, detracting from its capability to present the intentional services to the superior society (Goetting & Howsen (1986).
The prisoners that are confined in there for protection may have been assaulted by another prisoner or cell mate and lash out from fear or anger, or have serious thoughts of harming thereselves afterwards. In 2001 Human Rights Watch reported that “Victims of prison rape commonly report nightmares, deep depression, shame, loss of self-esteem, self-hatred, and considering or attempt...
I think it is abundant, just last December in New York, an inmate died as a result of guard brutality. I do not believe in verbal or physical assault in an institution. Inflicting fear and abhor is not a way to gain control. It is a
... officer was a “white hat,” in the book they referred to them as newjack. Most of the guards were turnkey; they had little contact with inmates. Lastly, one guard told Ted Conover to live at work the problem at work and not bring it home with him. In class we talked about how officer go home with the problems of the job, which is not healthy for them and their family.
Correctional Officers are a very important part of the Justice System because it keeps high profile criminals off the street and locked up even before they are proven innocent or guilty. The Correctional Facility in many ways is a lot like a jail, from what I saw when I toured the new Pre Trial Centre in Port Coquitlam. There are large thick metal doors to lock them in at night. Each cell contains a small bed, a desk and shelf, a sink and a toilet. The one thing I found interesting was at the new Pre Trial Facility in Port Coquitlam each cell had a window, which I thought was a little too much for criminals but I guess they are innocent until proven guilty. As this is a NEW facility and it has some nicer things than the older centres.
Being an officer who protects and serves is already quite terrifying. Having to be with inmates that have killed or assaulted people are the worst of the worst. A correctional officer has big responsibilities to keep themselves safe and their families safe when they go home later that day. You have to think about what goes through the minds of the inmates when you have to keep them in check, or watch over them. Do they want to kill you, your family, show up at your house.
In order to answer these two research questions, the following factors will be discussed: relational violence in women’s prison, a comparison of sexual coercion experiences reported by men and women in prison, prisoner confrontations and the search for respect, and the rates of victimization.
Ted Conover was from a relatively high class upbringing with good professional accomplishments and education. He was a journalist who came up with an idea to become a correction officer because he was denied access by the Department of Corrections from conducting interviews or research on intuitional grounds about the lives of correctional officers.
My father, Nestor Iribe, is currently a correctional officer and has been working for that department for several years. My father has stated before that in the prison environment they are always seen as the bad guy. Any action officers make in the prison the inmates automatically believe it is because of their race or it is unfair; but, officers like my father are only doing their job to sustain the safety of themselves, staff, and inmates. Since I am close to a correctional officer I understand the true role of correctional officers and the realization of the false stereotypes and misconceptions that are made by others and the information from the media. I am able to understand the stress those who are in the corrections department go through daily when going to work and the kinds of individuals the officers have to put up with and tolerate no matter the crime. I am also able to understand about the risks my father puts himself in everyday when he leaves to work and that he is susceptible of getting injured or harmed while at work, which has occurred twice already. However, those who do not have a close relationship with a correctional officer do not understand what it is like and rather go with what the negative feedback the media says. Having experience with a correctional officer allows one to have a better understanding in comparison to those who have never had a relation with a correctional
Firstly, in order to gain a better understanding of the problems that plague or correctional system we must fully understand the enormous overcrowding problem that exist in the majority of or state and federal prisons. Since 1980 the prison population has quadrupled and only the numb...