Topic: The Club House / 12 Hour Shifts

Is there a moderator for this forum? It appears that someone…I won’t name names…but it appears as though they may be under the influence while participating in this forum. One has to wonder why, oh why, would they come to a corrections-based forum where corrections professionals partake and cry about drug users going to prison?

Get a life! It’s the law. You violate it, you get punished. You eat too much, you suffer the overweight consequences, but it’s NOT against the law! Drugs are.

You are making NO headway in this forum and if I can find a moderator I, personally, will ask them to ban you from the thread.

Shoo…shoo… go away little drug user!

Topic: The Club House / 12 Hour Shifts

Time to remove my notifications of new posts to this thread. It has been hijacked into some liberal, pro-convict tirade and I’m tired of reading about it.

If you’d like to start a topic elsewhere regarding your viewpoints on how we should not lock up people because they break the law, please start your own thread. This one was meant for discussion on 12-hour shifts.

Topic: The Club House / 12 Hour Shifts

Kansas is a good state. Good for you.

You are not going to get an argument from me regarding the errors that occur after the 8 hour mark. One study of the health care field showed that after 8 hours the charting became more sloppy; after 10 hours, shortcuts were made on decisions regarding critical care; nearing the 12-hour mark they didn’t even want to post the number and type or errors.

12 hours in seg would not be nice. But, think of the officer working a single officer assignment in a unit for 12 hours! The mental aptitude decreases after 8 hours just as production. What is the chance of that officer “dozing” off near the end of his/her shift? Any errors that occur due to fatigue, etc., will NOT be considered “collateral damage”. They will be pinned on the employee as it is THEIR responsibility, not the department’s! It’s all about money, and the employee will suffer in the process.

No, I am NOT for 12-hour shifts, especially in Corrections.

Topic: The Club House / 12 Hour Shifts

Pookii…what state do you work in (just an FYI)?

As far as my statement that the documentation is “for it”, if you Google information regarding 12-hour shifts, there is a ton of info out there regarding studies of people working 12-hour shifts. A very large majority of these studies indicate that staff adapted well to the shifts, productivity did not decrease, morale increased, sick leave usage dropped, and on and on. However, I do acknowledge that the studies were mainly done in the health care and production fields, NOT corrections.

Furthermore, I conducted a personal survey of speaking with staff from several different agencies and jobs from the Federal level law enforcement to local private business. I must say that ALL the staff I spoke with not only preferred 12-hour shifts, but in their words they “…love them!”

Please keep in mind that I, personally, am not for 12-hour shifts at our facility. I don’t think I can physically or mentally do them. I think the process is for the benefit of the agency only and put a great deal of stress on the employee working the shifts. Furthermore, we don’t have plans to “rotate” shifts meaning that those on the night shift would be there FOREVER!

I’ve also read studies that have shown that more errors occur after the 8 hour point, especially in high stress jobs (i.e., nursing, law enforcement, etc.). Apparently, the organizations are willing to accept the increased errors as part of the process, since there are so many reports that prove it.

The National Institute of Corrections has reported that the average life expectancy of a Corrections Officer after a 20 year career is age 58. In addition, working “shift work” can decrease that number to age 53. For a “normal” person (if you can define that), the average life expectancy is 77.6 years. I don’t believe it matters how much money you are paid, they can’t pay you enough money to knock 25 years off your life!

Topic: The Club House / 12 Hour Shifts

I’m not Admin, but I’m a Captain. Unfortunately, that means I don’t categorize as Admin and I don’t categorize as shift staff…unless it suits the organization.

This is why I started this post. My research shows that the staff that work 12-hour shifts love them, however, like you mention, work performance decreases. If I were on a 12-hour shift, my time away from work on working days would be spent sleeping as I have a 45 minute drive to and from work. I would spend no time with my family until my days off, which I would have more of, but now I see my family 365 days a year as opposed to 180 days a year.

If one has children, that poses an even larger burden. Many choose to work night shift to accomodate baby-sitting. 12-hour shift would cause them to have to hire a baby-sitter or not see their children’s evening activities.

I can tell you why departments want to go to 12-hour shifts: money! At our facility with 265 officers, we would lose 20 right off the top! That’s 20 staff out of a job. Overtime decreases and staff aren’t so willing to burn 12 hours of sick leave as opposed to 8 hours. The bottom line is the almighty dollar!

I’m 51 years old and I don’t know if my body can physically handle working 12 hour shifts, let alone mentally. In MI, they are now talking about bargaining with the officer’s union to make them go to 12-hour shifts, also, with an agreement that they work 84 hours per pay period of straight pay…no overtime.

Nobody wants to work Corrections anymore. You can’t hire decent staff anymore. The last few classes have produces maybe a dozen quality officers out of 200. It’s not like hiring for police departments. In fact, they can’t even get enough applicants to fill a full academy! When you look at the calibre of staff being hired and then put them on 12-hour shifts where performance drops…you are asking for trouble!

Topic: The Club House / Greetings

LOL@Heat Bag. I’m sorry, Bro! 2 year left for me and then I’m moving to Canada to work in their corrections dept.

Topic: Security Central / A question about cellphones

Cell phones also work to enable prisoners to plan escapes more accurately. They don’t need to wait for the “timing” to take place. All they need to do is make a call and they’re gone.

In Michigan, cell phones aren’t that expensive, because only the ones who have them or can get them also control them.

Since we’ve stopped smoking in prison, that’s where the money is at! A $4.65 bag of Buglar at the store will bring more than $8K in pin-joing cigarettes.

Topic: The Club House / 12 Hour Shifts

Our staff on days don’t have much of a problem, because they just work an extra 4 hours. Nights is the same. Afternoon shift, of which I am on, gets screwed as we lose our entire shift?

I’m only 2 years away from retirement and 12 hour shifts are for the kids. I have a hard time just working my regular 8 hours! I don’t hear too much negative about it, but it sure doesn’t look appealing to me.

Topic: The Club House / 12 Hour Shifts

I know this topic came up before, but it’s been a while. Our facilities in MI run with a Capt and 2 Lts and Sergeants depending on the size of your facility. They just cut one Lt per shift to save money! Stupid idea, I know, but even worse is that they now want to come up with a schedule that prevents OT!

We run three 8 hour shifts. Capt on weekends off, Lt/Sgts on 10-4 with every other weekend off.

If your state/facility has tried or is doing 12-hour shifts or a combination of 12/10/8 or whatever, can you let me know what your schedule looks like and if your staff like it? Most of our staff are against it, but all the documentation I find is generally for it.

Your help is appreciated. Thanks.