There are several different schools of thought, The only way you will learn properly is to work all three tours. They all bring a true sense of the job at hand, how else would you learn if you don’t exprience for yourself. Besides if I recall, when you first starting out you were put on what is known as the wheel, a different tour every four days with two rdo’s. Each tour is something to learn, most of the time fellow officers (with good intentions) tell you what to do on certain posts, but they themselves are wrong. Read the post order folders you find on post. In early days the inmates taught you the job, believe or not, but times have changed and the job didn’t. Lots of luck

Well here in Texas we have 2 shifts day an night. An my personal opinion would be night shift because when we get to shift we still have’em up but its less movement than day, we have mail, lay-ins, pill window, an chow, plus you have workers that need to come on an off the pod. plus you have to learn how to deal with inmates that dont want to rack up which if you work days you wouldnt learn, but there’s pros an cons to both.

Some good suggestions here. My experience has been that 3rd shift has been a good shift for training and learning. Since there is little activity, mentors or field training officers have more time to actually work with you closely. It is also a great time for drills. Supervisors get bored and are prone to conducting more drills. This also allows for more time to discuss drill outcomes and to actually practice skills without the pressure of affecting other services or activities at the facility. However, I think you can learn something different from every shift.

I agree about second shift, and will add that I started Corrections working a housing unit, then went to utility/relief. I leared more in the first month as utility than I knew after two years in a housing unit.

Definitely 2nd shift. I’ve worked third, but it was so dang boring. Things are different from shift to shift, but I definitely prefer 2nd.

You will only learn a limited amount on 3rd shift. It is slow and a lot of posts are not open at that time. The best (and typically busiest) shift to jump into it all on is 2nd shift. If you are a quick learner, that would be the shift to get the most experience right out of the gate. You can learn a lot from the senior officers on 1st or 3rd shift as well though. The majority of your senior officers are on those two shifts typically, and there is a reason for that. First of all the hours on 2nd shift usually ruin your day. If you are not single, those hours can be trying. Secondly, the senior officers tend to go where there is less work, naturally, one of the benefits of serving your time. But all in all for the learning part of it, 2nd shift would be the place to be to get a lot of first hand experience quickly.

I start my new job on Monday for Missouri DOC. I was wondering which shift would you consider the best to start on? Thirds will be a little slower, so I am hoping to start there so I can learn as much as possible before heading to the busier times.