Go Boy Essay, Research Paper
Book Summary “Go-Boy”
The book “go Boy” is all about the life and times of boy and man named Roger Caron. He is trapped inside a life that he does not want, but he does not know any other way of living. Roger knows how to commit crime, he knows how to survive in jail; he was not taught any other way of life.
Roger Caron started his jailing career on October 17th, 1954 in the Guelph reformatory doing fourteen months for break and enter at the age of sixteen. This was Rogers first time away from home and he had to learn a whole new type of life. He learned at an early age not to show fear because fear means weakness and weakness could very well mean death.
Roger was then transferred to a medium security reformatory in Brampton. At this reformatory is where Roger made his first of many mistakes. He thought he was in trouble for murdering a man, so he did what he thought he should do and broke out of the reformatory. It turned out that the man did not even die. In return Roger was captured and sent back to Guelph reformatory and he got an extra six months for escaping; now he is serving a sentence of twenty months.
In this reformatory Roger got the first taste of the cooler. He was stripped of his clothes and was given heavy sox and a cloth to wear instead of clothes. Roger stayed in the cooler for ten days. When he got out of the cooler he became very rebellious against the inmates and the guards. The courts decided to put him in a segregated unit within the institution. This is where there were the meanest and toughest criminals in Canada. Here is where Roger Caron learned most of his survival traits that kept on getting him into trouble. Roger was accused of assaulting a guard and was sentenced to ten strokes of the paddle in the limbo room.
Roger got paroled and not less than a week later he committed armed robbery and was sentenced to two years less one day in the Ontario Reformatory. Roger kept on getting into fights and was starting to make a big name for himself. He started spending most of his free time lifting weights and getting in shape. He was then transferred to the psychiatric ward. This place was heaven compared to where he was staying before. It had couches and televisions and had women nurses. Caron was later transferred back to the normal inmate population. He was at work one day and he thought of a plan that would set him free again. He ended up escaping for four days before he got caught again. The judge now gave him twenty five years in the Kingston penitentiary.
Rogers days in the prison consisted of the same things to do every day. At eight in the morning he would leave his cell for work. By eleven a.m. he would be back in his cell with his dinner tray which consisted of watery tea and lima beans. Then for the remainder of his break he would listen to music over his radio headset. At one o’clock Roger would join the rest of the inmates outside for forty-five minutes of fresh air and recreation. By four p.m. he would be back to his cell with his supper tray until morning. At seven o’clock the silence bell went off and at nine forty-five the lights went out.
Because of Roger Caron’s age the men in the prison wanted to take him and use him as a sex toy. There is a lot of sex going on in the prison but there is an inmate rule to leave the young ones alone. Roger being totally strait wanted nothing to do with any sexual activity with any of the guys. The reformatory was sort of becoming a nightmare for Roger. He was starting to lose his mind. He wanted out into the real world and he could not stand being alone anymore. This is when he started shutting himself away from his friends. He stopped talking and became a mute. Two years later in the shower some guy was looking at Roger in a quire way and Roger’s friend noticed and almost killed the guy. This incident got Roger talking again. Roger stopped the fight by yelling at his friend to let the guy go.
June 25, 1959 Roger got paroled. He felt liberated yet still imprisoned. The only life he really knew is that of a prisoner. Roger’s father picked him up and brought him home to the family. Rogers mom was very happy to see Roger again and she threw a party for him. On Rogers tenth day of freedom he got a job working for C.P.R. making 90 cents an hour. Roger worked for a couple of days then he could not take the heat that his boss was putting him through, so he quit.
Rogers dad was getting very ill and the hospital bills were starting to pile up. Roger felt that he needed to do something for his dad so he went out robbed another store. The cops arrested him put him in jail. The next day when they were about to transfer him he broke free and escaped once more. Roger made it as far as Montreal and he was picked up again by the police and brought back to jail. Roger ended up tricking the guard and he escaped once more. He got picked up by a family and was brought to their house to spend the night. The next morning they gave him a lift into town. A while later on the radio the people who fed Roger and gave him a place to stay heard that he was a wanted criminal who had escaped from jail. They reported him and he was later caught. Roger was sentenced to the maritime penitentiary for two and a half years. After completion he would serve the remainder of time for time for Break and Enter, safe cracking, and escaping custody.
Roger finished his sentence and was released once more but this time his father was not around. He had died a while back and that made Roger go crazy. He did not care anymore and now his ambition to go strait has vanished. Roger found his first girlfriend and he was beginning to be happy. Roger was running low on money so he attempted to rob another bank. This time Roger and his friends all got away; but were later caught.
Roger was sentenced to fourteen years at the Kingston Penitentiary. Roger was up to no good again and escaped, but this time he hid on the grounds of the penitentiary. He was later caught and was sentenced to two years in the hole. Roger spent one year in solitary confinement then was transferred to Stony Mountain Penitentiary in Manitoba. Roger calmed down for the next couple of years and was transferred to a medium security prison in Leclerc. On July 22, 1971 Roger was released and he met a girl named Pamela. He was quite happy with his new life, but he feared that he would lose Pamela if he did not get money soon. Roger robbed another bank and was caught. He was put in the Ottawa jail to await sentence. Here he broke out again with a couple guys he met in the cell and escaped to the United States. Roger decided to rob another store and this time he got away with it. He then went back across the border and made it all the way to Toronto before was ambushed by police. Roger Caron got one last sentence in Millhaven maximum security institution.
Roger Caron was transferred to the medium security prison of Collins Bay January 1957. Roger has appeared before the parole board but the decision was postponed for a year. He spent the next five years inside the prison without any word of parole. Roger was let out of prison for a day to attend his widowed mother’s wedding.
Roger never knew how to cope with the real world. He was always out of money and only knew of one way to get it: robbery. Roger spent most of his life in prison but now with the help of many people he has learned a new way of life. He is learning how to cope with society and he is said to be one ?goy boy’ that will finally make it.