Not On My Watch, Not On My Watch, A Beloved Prison Wardens 30 Year Fight For Justice In The Prison System

The large and imposing building made a lasting impression on Bob Hatrak when his family relocated from Pennsylvania to Trenton in the early 1940s. The fickle forces of fate would bring him to find himself working behind the cold gray walls of Trenton State Prison in the late 1960s. Years before working in the education department of Trenton State, Bob Hatrak was born and raised in rural Pennsylvania. His parents were immigrants from Czechoslovakia who instilled lifelong characteristics of hard work and perseverance into Bob’s life. Bob would also learn the vital importance of communication with authority figures and the need to stand up for oneself.

Bob Hatrak was a better-than-average student and a promising baseball pitcher. He was the recipient of a few scholarship offers to play ball at various colleges, but Bob opted to stay local. His potential to go further in the sport was dashed by a grisly industrial accident that mangled his throwing hand. Despite an initial urge to wallow in his troubles, Bob would overcome this adversity and throw himself further into his studies.

Bob had previously worked in Trenton State Prison in a part-time capacity. However, his chance to make a lasting impression arrived in 1967 when he was brought on as Director of Education. The education of the prisoners was deficient and in need of an overhaul. Bob would supervise a modernizing of available learning materials and would guide many inmates into receiving their high school equivalency diploma.

In 1973, Bob would become the Warden at Rahway State Prison. The prison had an infamous reputation based on its inmate makeup and previous inmate uprisings. Bob sought to institute reforms within the prison to aid in the rehabilitation of the prisoners and improve the reputation of the facility. The Self-Rehabilitation Enterprise Group would lead to the program known as “Scared Straight.”

Not on My Watch, Not on My Watch is a memoir that regales the reader with the story of a man who would run one of the more infamous correctional institutions in New Jersey, if not the United States. However, Bob Hatrak’s story does not dwell on the gratuitous or graphic in order to be a fantastic read. Hatrak sparks the reader’s interest from inception in his vivid remembrance of the 1971 Rahway State Prison riot and how thinking would need to be quick at Trenton State Prison in order to quell any similar disturbances. The appeal of the book comes from Hatrak’s zeal in innovating the institutions he worked at while also reaching out to the men under his charge. The memories of his wife Joan on assorted moments in their relationship add a little extra color to this splendid autobiography.