Comments on: Florida Prison Boss Calls For More Staff, Shorter Shifts

By: Laz

Laz — Tue, 11 Oct 2016 18:13:30 +0000

12 hour shift are way better than 8 hour shift The reason being is because if you were to work Extended workday you only work an extra 4 hrs Instead of the 8hrs if you were working 8 hou shifts.the department’s reasoning is that instead of keeping the officer
For 4 hours they would keep you for 8 hours.and there are two shifts, 12hrs and swing shift that works 8 hrs to fill the gap.and my opinion is give us a pay raise and be more selective in the hiring process and you’ll weed out the corruption. Working 12 hour shifts will keep officers more rested and alert when doing their job.

By: Cangelosi

Cangelosi — Sat, 06 Feb 2016 19:46:58 +0000

Ive been a CO1 for 29 long ass years. The pay disparity is ridiculous for state corrections officers compared to local counties which by the way is the main reason staff leaves. For example here at miami dade county a CO1 can make 80000 a year while a state warden makes the same. In conclusion to make the FDOC a better place overall is PAY more or AT LEAST give raises. Dont worry about shifts or being short staffed i gaurantee if you pay more youll have the opposite problem of over staffing and content officers.

By: Don Stanton

Don Stanton — Mon, 18 Jan 2016 16:58:59 +0000

As a 10 year vetern of DOC and having worked shift work for 35 years, anyone will tell you 12hr shifts are best deal then 8 hr, for all involved. the problem with DOC is they while on the 8 hr shifts “ghosted” a lot of the slots needed to be manned (used the same person to fill 2 or more slots) then when on 12 hrs and a new Secretary they were force to cover all “critical” slots and pay overtime instead of comp-time. This showed a large OT payout.
The fact of the matter is if done correctly overtime should be less on 12 hour shifts compared to 8 hour. secondly DOc only tried one variation of 12 hour shifts. I prefered work 4 days off five, but there are staggered shifts there are 12 and 10 hour combined shifts all are better then the 8 housr shifts.
It starts with SOLID leadership and then good implementation, and showing the workers really matter as well as payraises sooner then every 10 years.

By: David

David — Sun, 17 Jan 2016 18:17:42 +0000

Mike, that is not how twelve hour shifts work now. It is a much more palatable schedule with at most 3 days in a row and that only happens every other week.

By: David

David — Sun, 17 Jan 2016 18:10:30 +0000

Gigi, do you have any idea what non-violent means? Non-violent could include anything from petty theft to possession of child pornography. Still want to let them out? How about that dealer who gets a 13 year old hooked on meth and pimps her out so she can cover her habit? Is he good to walk to? I have worked with some violent offenders who I would trust more than so,e of these so called non-violent people you are crying to release. Have you ever walked a turn wearing that uniform? Are you willing to make room in your life with your family for some of these criminals? So stop criticizing others for making s best effort to do their job under the worst possible circumstances. You opinion means nothing if you are speaking with zero knowledge or experience.

By: C.O. 1

C.O. 1 — Sun, 17 Jan 2016 17:20:02 +0000

Dont know where the smiley face came from that should be im havin to work 8 hours over

By: C.O. 1

C.O. 1 — Sun, 17 Jan 2016 17:06:37 +0000

Ive been a c.o. for 11 years and the idea of going back to 8 hr shifts is insane. If you think staff morale and shortages is a problem now just wait till we go back to 8’s. And heres some reasons why. 1 we will lose 8 hours a month pay. 2 we end up working 16 hour shifts alot now due to staff shortages atleast once a week ( i know its still 16 hours but its alot easier to say im staying 4 more hours than saying 3 we have a 3 day weekend every other weekend and work only 14 days a month. 4 if thay go back like we use to be if your post has say tues. Wed off thats wat you get every week, never get a weekend off which in turn makes you call in sick to get a weekend off and then you have staff shortages making sombody have to stay over 8 hrs. . I could go on for 100 reasons but my voice dont matter cause the know it alls that run this state have no idea what we really go threw. The few times thay do come on the compound were expected to have the dorm on its best behavior and the smell of bleach in the air and everybody looking sharp but soon as thay walk out the dorm its back to buisness as usual. That could care less about us or dorm cleanliness and welfare. So that being said you think your short staffed now. Go ahead and put us back on 8 hr shifts cause your rosters r gonna get alot shorter

By: C. O.

C. O. — Sun, 17 Jan 2016 15:31:53 +0000

There simply is no logic to this proposal. The idea that contraband is being introduced do to staff being fatigued is the most ubsurd idea I have ever heard. On top of that 12 hour shifts gives us way more time off with our families also it easier to take leave compared to 8 hours. Then we come to the facts of bang in’s, some individuals have trouble coming to work 2 out of 7 days of a week so you expecting them to come for 5 days? All this proposal is ensuring is that the officers that actually come to work and do their jobs will suffer. Also if this is approved you can go ahead and add on to your jobs needed for hire instead of 700 positions might as well double or triple that number. What your then going to run into is having completely new staff running higher custody prisons… You think contraband is bad now? I forget the state doesn’t seem to care about its employees opinions anymore it’s more about the inmates now.

By: Jules

Jules — Sun, 17 Jan 2016 14:44:43 +0000

The 12 hour shift that DOC works is 3 on 2 off 2 on 3 off. I Worked the night shift. And loved them. Especially great to be brand new and know you will have weekends off! Instead of waiting years to have them. Every other weekend you are off. I wonder if anybody had any firms complete surveys when we were all on 8’s. Do they realize that 16 hours were being worked by many, EVERYDAY on all shifts. Robbing Peter to pay Paul. Do they realize we were ghosting positions? To cut most of the Overtime. We were ghosting positions because we had so many vacancies because guidelines required DOC to carry a large lapse factor. We were about 3 months into the 12’s before anybody realized we were ghosting positions. Again the 12 hour shifts was not set up to have a lapse factor but that is how it was run. They have lift the lapse. Now we cant get new staff to stay because you are being pulled so many different ways. Or the TEA comes in and is out and about on the yard being trained and once they are certified, they are confined to the officer’s station. And sometime they realize they were not cut out to be in Corrections because of an incident that happens. They quit because that wasn’t what they had expected. It was or is happening at every institution in some fashion at some point. EAP is up because our personal life is no longer ours. Everything we do is under scrutiny, on and off the job. (Cameras, audio, Facebook, you offended someone by what’s on YOUR vehicle, etc). Not only do we have to worry about our back with the inmates, we have to worry about whether the next officer has your back if something happens. And GIGI, you maybe onto something with these inmates in their non-violent crimes. I have a few of them I would definitely like to be let out to be your neighbor. They ARE non violent offenders. That is really all I can say about them in a positive manner. It sure is easy to pass judgement and you have not walked behind them gates. However with that being said, there is inmates that never get in trouble and there should be something to assist them in being released early. There are major changes coming with DOC. To make it better is all great. I feel pretty positive that more money will bring more people wanting to hire on. However, not having weekends off or having them once a month is enough to deter them from applying or staying. We want staff hired that will want to stay and make a career of it.

By: Roderick Yost

Roderick Yost — Fri, 15 Jan 2016 02:25:07 +0000

All of you who think that us going back to 8 hours is going to be more beneficial to our staff, but what all of you are not understanding is that we are not going to be going back to 8 hour shifts. We will be going back to working 16 hour shifts like we did years ago. so good job Rick Scott and Julie Jones. Thanks for giving us less time with our families. This is the reward we get for the hard work that we do. So We lose 8 hours extra of pay a month. We have to drive more to work. so there we are wasting more gas. So yes… as soon as we go to 8 hour shifts, go ahead and add one more position to that cause I’m out.