Newjack is my latest book, about prison; the word is slang for "rookie guard." I spent almost a year as an officer to experience what prison is really like, how it changes everybody, from staff to inmates.

The idea came to me after the New York Dept. of Correctional Services refused to let me visit their training academy (I had wanted to profile a recruit as he passed through).

Tantalized by some visits to prisons and concluding that I was unlikely to ever really understand prison from outside the walls, I took the officer exam myself. Two years later I entered Sing Sing as a newjack.

In elementary school I played bugle in the color guard. One of my duties was to stand alone every morning in the center hallway after the bell rang and play "To the Colors." When I finished, the students in their classrooms would hold hands to their hearts and recite the "Pledge of Allegiance." It was always slightly terrifying, due to the high likelihood that I would hit a wrong note. I prefer writing to bugling because, before the song is over, you get a chance to revise.