As a newjack, he'd had to work New Year's Eve and he describes, in his book's chilling conclusion, an apocalyptic scene in which inmates set fires in their cells and tossed burning debris into the gallery in primal protest. Maybe he hated us, maybe he hated that inmate, maybe he didn't know what he hated, but eventually the pile caught fire,'' Conover writes. We felt the heat from a sudden inferno on our backs and leaped out of the cell. Conover already had tendered his resignation by then. They asked that I give them two weeks and that was it,'' Conover said.
Nobody talks about it.
Conover walked out of Sing Sing for the last time in early '98 without fanfare. Newjacks quit every day. It's just expected,'' he said. He saved his boots, collar brass, name tag and DOCS baseball cap. The psychic baggage is less easily shed.