For me, it wasn't just another job. You had a purpose. When I went to work each day I had a purpose. If I can heal up, and if they will make some changes, I'll go back to work out there. God must have something great for Billy to do.
Guards serve as little more than handy symbols of injustice and oppression.
Ted Conover has written an amazing book about life in prison. But he's not behind bars, he's in front of them. N.Y. Conover, an anthropologist by training and a journalist by trade, immerses himself in whatever culture he decides to study, whether it's that of railroad hoboes, Kenyan truckers or the privileged inhabitants of Aspen. Being a CO turns out, not surprisingly, to be a miserable job. The hours, days and weeks are thick with nerve-wracking tension and boredom, punctuated by moments of terror.