Profiles with Tara: Interview with Ted Conover
Author of Newjack: Guarding Sing Sing (II of II)

Introduction to book at: http://talktotara.com/biohistoryandscifi.htm
RealPlayer interview at: http://talktotara.com/conover.ram
Copyright © 1998-2002 TalktoTara.com, Inc. All rights reserved.
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(start interview at about halfway mark on RealPlayer)

Vocabulary (II):

relationship
to vary

state
maximum security prison
tense
to be oppressed
uniform
imprisoned
Latino
strict, stern
joking
dark humor
good-natured
hard time
P.A. system
ground floor
chamber
setting
overall
war
separate sides
to get old
to wear one out
male psyche
hormone
the way we're set up
physiologically
passage
to deal with
not to have a lot of choice
bottom rung
law enforcement
stigmatized
good benefits
pension
to be forced to
prison guard material
why on earth...?
to make a living
manipulative
to flirt
to show favoritism
hard to resist
Mr. Slurpy
out of the ordinary
debased
depraved
body fluids
excrement
urine
the box

disciplinary building
to spray
disgusting
to bring it up
special crime
aggravated assault
to extend
firm, consistent
to flip = to go crazy
'to blank somebody down'
destroyed
characters
Puerto Rican

overtime
huge physical presence
blank face
situations requires it
outnumbered
housing block
cells
chow
gym
prison rape
ongoing
obsessed with

poem
Anne Frank
in common with
tattoo
prose
vocational shops
neighborhoods
to supervise
transvestite
transsexual
abound
attractive
capable
to excite some interest
hard-up
to pretend
receding hair
pot belly
yellow teeth
breasts
freak
peculiar
sort of
on the subject
was it worth it
to my knowledge
to get away with
consensual sex
stairwell
utility closet
constant supervision
showers
wide open
to get caught
punished
Turner
rehabilitation



warehouses
human beings
storage units
if you will
statement
despite
to turn someone around
law-abiding
to give lip service to
rehab = rehabilitation
AA = Alcoholics Anonymous
anger management
to go in with
to pull off a heist
to fill their brains
punitive
frame of mind
to be fascinated by
trial
court TV
apprehension
cops
O.J. (Simpson)
to be convicted
side door
to put oneself in
invitation
garbage
toxic waste
to shut one's eyes to
to reform
to be diverted from
first-time offenders
judge
to have one's hands tied
California
Louisiana
to reassess
education
creative
to put one's mind to it
Europe
model
counseling
to be involved with
to draw a dark line
fuzzy
soul-shrinking
support
alcoholics
divorced
abusiveness
psychic
spiritual
aspect
to stay whole
occasionally
alongside
to penalize
to put people down
to bring out a side of one
inner disciplinarian
aggressive
robotic
to keep s.t. to oneself
stress
to stay healthy
decent
larger view
generation
live among us
damaged
Bloods
to cook up a program
supervised
at loose ends
there's a ton we could do
short term
Alaska
to retrace
territory
disaster
log rafts
to float
creek
Yukon
to recreate
teenagers
in my blood

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


Listening Comprehension Questions (II):
1. How do a lot of prisoners feel about the justness of their imprisonment?
2. What kind of relationship is there usually between the inmates and guards?
3. Why, according to Conover, can it be harder to work in a women's prison?
4. Doing what can make a guard's job easier in a women's prison, according to Conover?
5. What disgusting thing did the inmate with the nickname of 'Mr. Slurpy' sometimes do?
6. What can happen to an inmate who behaves like this in a New York prison?
7. How did an officer look after a prisoner did the action described in (5) to him?
8. What did one Puerto Rican inmate have tattooed on his back?
9. One inmate felt it was 'too late' for the people already in jail; where should resources go instead?
10. Some transvestites and transsexuals got different treatment than others. Why?
11. What does Conover say about prison rape, based on his experience working at Sing Sing?
12. Why is it difficult for something like rape to take place in a prison like Sing Sing?
13. What does Conover think the 'single best way to keep people from coming back' to a prison is?
14. What does Conover mean when he says 'we're in a punitive frame of mind' in the US at this time?
15. The public seems very interested in trials; but less information is available about what?
16. Explain the metaphors of 'garbage' and 'toxic waste' as cited in this interview.
17. What is the first thing, Conover suggests, that should be done to reform the U. S. penal system? The second?
18. What does Europe seem to do better than the US as regards their penal system?
19. What does Conover mean when he says the job of prison guard is 'soul shrinking'?
20. What unpleasant side effect does the author say his experience brought out in him?
21. The author said he tried to keep unpleasant things to himself and away from his family;
but what did he find out was important in order to maintain his own emotional health?
22. What is the prison system doing right, according to Conover?
23. What happens when young black and Latino men who have spent their 20s and 30s in prison go back into society?
24. About how much does it cost for the government to keep an inmate in jail for a year?
25. What is one of the author's next projects?



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