A Trip To Prison Summary

“With prisons so much in the news, costing so much money, and confining such unprecedented numbers of people, it seemed to me that their operations should be completely transparent” (Conover, 2000, p. 17). Ted Conover soon realized that by simply taking a tour of prison, he wasn’t going to see or hear the whole truth of what happens in prison. The correction world was hidden from him and the outside world. The only way to receive the access he wanted was to apply for a correctional officer position in New York. That was the only way to get a clear insight to what this world is like. The book begins with how he entered into this occupation. He applied for the position, and waited. It took time to receive his test scores back, and a few interviews …show more content…
He beings strong and sticks to the standard operating procedures, he writes inmates up and confiscates prohibited items. But as time goes on, social learning theory takes place. He learns from the senior officers of what acts are truly important when writing an inmate up. He also learns how to treat the inmates effectively in such a way that they will obey his orders. Towards the end of his time at Sing Sing his personality has changed. On one occasion he gets upset with his child for being disobedient. He also gets in smaller arguments with his wife. He took this job positions with the idea that he wouldn’t let his job affect his personality or who he was a person. But he ends his last chapter with “Fuck it, I thought. And in the true, not-my-problem spirit of Sing Sing, I fled” (Conover, P. 302). He allowed the occupation to have a small negative impacts on his life. He like many other officers no longer wanted to deal with the stressors of the life as correctional …show more content…
Being a correctional officer isn’t just about being on a guard on a block and the book uncovers those areas. It goes into detail about being on a transportation detail, being a guard in the psych unit, and also what its like being a guard during visitations. The most interesting I thought was the psych unit, Conover describes what its like to be on suicide watch every hour watching one person not kill themselves, but continue to try and hurt themselves. He also describes what its like to interact with inmates with real disabilities and even how other inmates treat them. He gives a good insight to how this difficult job can change an individual. This is a strong book with slight weaknesses. My edition of the book has one illustration of the prison, but it still was difficult to understand how the block is pictured. Another illustration could have cleared this up. There were many facts about prisons and executions for example that could have been placed in a different part of the book instead of intermingling the facts with his experiences. It made it hard for me in particular to