Holding the Key: My Year as a Guard at Sing Sing (Paperback)

Almost breathlessly we turn pages as Conover’s own transformation takes place. Powerfully brought to life… by Conover’s skillful account of Sing Sing’s past. It’s a history as memorably encapsulated here as in any writing I know of. A moving indictment of our ways of punishment. NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW

Newjack… is a fascinating and sobering read. USA TODAY BOOKS WEBSITE

Newjack is about as good as it gets- by turns gripping, funny, frightening and sad. BOOKWORLD

"Newjack: Guarding Sing Sing" is a compelling account of the author’s frustrating and often terrifying year on the beat in one of the world’s most infamous prisons, "Newjack" is an important cautionary tale. The book starkly details the consequences of a nation-wide corrections system that does little more than warehouse an unprecedented portion of the population with no real attempt at education or mental health treatment. "Newjack" is a graphic and troubling window into society’s scrapheap. Conover is to be commended for having the chops to venture where few others would dare go. L.A. TIMES

In "Newjack" Conover again crosses borders, and again works alongside the people he wants to understand. Without preaching, he draws conclusions form what he sees.

BOSTON GLOBE

In his riveting, well-paced account, Conover struggles to walk he fine line between pushover and tyrant, MAXIM

Conover ends his ordeal with this fascinating look at how prison brutalizes men and women on both sides of the bars.

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY

Mr Conover gives readers an incisive and indelible look at the life of a corrections officer and the dark life of the penal system.

DALLAS MORNING NEWS

The result of Conover’s odyssey is an endlessly fascinating, often suspenseful book. Conover and his editor achieved just the right tone as he tells the story in first-person prose. …appropriate amounts of glibness and dark humour. He generously shares his thoughts and feelings without sounding condescending or self-pitying.

ST LOUIS POST DISPATCH

It is also this fascinating story, a behind-the-scenes look at a closed world few would have been allowed to see.

SAN DIEGO

"Newjack" is the bittersweet fruit of his labour, a devastating chronicle of the toll prison life takes on the prisoners and the keepers of the keys… Conover brilliantly conveys the confusion and frustration of trying to use the lessons of the Academy in a real-time situation.

MINNEAPOLIS STAR TRIBUNE

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