NewJack: Guarding Sing Sing: Chapter 4

The Old English "brecan" means "to break, shatter, burst, injure." Thus, a physical breach results when something breaks, creating "an opening, especially a gap in a dike or fortification." The example sentence uses the noun figuratively to describe the breaking of rules, but the concrete definition is suggested by an earlier comparison between the walls and rules of Sing Sing.

The Latin "laxus" means "wide, loose, open." This approach might be seen as relaxing instead of working. It might work for Michaels who sees the inmates as his "homies" but the author discovers that most inmates prefer to live by the rules since that means less chaos and less chance that they could get hurt.

The Late Latin "fractionem" means "a breaking, especially into pieces" and an infraction used to refer to the breaking of an agreement. The definition increases the seriousness of an infraction by describing it as a crime below murder or arson. But an infraction in prison can be anything from having an electric heating element in one's cell to taking an extra waffle in the mess hall.

This was spoken by an inmate, who was feeling grief about not being let out for his rec time. Because he was not a keeplock and was not given a reason for the denial of his right, he can complain through a formal grievance system. Thus, an officer who does not enforce the rules fairly would have to answer for it. But inmates' grievances might not carry much weight against the chronic shortage of officers willing to work at Sing Sing.

Compare with "infraction" in this list. The definitions are identical, but of the two, a misdemeanor is more serious and more likely to result in a criminal charge and jail time. Here, the word is used ironically, since the author didn't commit any crimes or misdemeanors; instead, he is exaggerating the sergeant's anger at his mishandling of an inmate's misbehavior (the inmate showered a half hour too soon, and the author wrote a report).

As a verb, "discipline" means "punish in order to gain control or enforce obedience." This does not apply to the example sentence, but it is suggested by the contrast between the self-disciplined inmates who are always working out at the gym and the troublesome inmates who need to be disciplined by the correction officers.

The chosen definition applies to the first use of the word, which connects to the inmate not wanting to be strip-frisked. The violation earned by the inmate is a punishment that "disregards an agreement or right" for "a crime less serious than a felony."

Compare this noun to the adjective "recalcitrant" in this list. More vivid images of what the words mean can be seen in their Latin roots: "calcitrare" means "to kick" and "stinare" means "to stand." In both cases, what is being kicked or stood up to is authority. Here, "obstinacy" is introduced with the adjective "lunatic," but the second part of the sentence gives it a positive quality of strength that both the prison reformer Osborne and the author admire.