By Graham Rayman
New York Daily News
NEW YORK — The New York City Department of Correction is once again bringing back 12-hour tours to address lingering staffing troubles, DOC officials confirm.
A pilot program requiring officers to work their normal eight hours plus four hours of overtime will start Nov. 30 at the Robert N. Davoren Center on Rikers Island , the officials said.
“Locally and nationally, correctional facilities are facing staffing challenges that have required members of service to work longer hours,” DOC spokeswoman Latima Johnson said.
“We have consistently heard from staff that providing a more predictable schedule is one of the most important priorities for their quality of life. In order to provide schedules that are fair, deliberative and consistent, the Correction Department is piloting an 8-hour tour plus 4 hours of overtime at one facility to measure how well it works.”
Johnson said the agency discussed the move with staff and the unions for the past two months, prioritizing on doing it in a “fair and thoughtful way.”
The jail population has risen by 32% since January 2022, the start of the Adams administration, DOC figures show. In October, there were 7,067 people held in the city jails, compared to 5,354 in January 2022.
Nearly 1,000 have been held for longer than a year and 531 for two years or longer.
The number of court appearances by detainees this October, 16,423, was higher than in any month since October 2018 when the total was 16,460, the data shows.
The size of the uniformed staff has been declining since July 2018 when it was 10,854. In January 2022, the number of DOC staff was 7,668. As of October, it had fallen to 5,770, a drop of 25% during the Adams years.
A recruiting campaign under DOC Commissioner Lynelle Maginley-Liddie has struggled to match the level of the pre-COVID years but has also shown improvement in the past two years, figures from the city comptroller’s jail statistics dashboard show.
A total of 361 new recruits graduated the Correction Academy in 2025, compared to 254 in 2024 and just 100 in 2023, the data shows. In 2022, the class totaled 229.
But in 2019, 821 new recruits joined the staff, and 839 joined in 2018, the data shows.
A spokesman for the correction officers union did not reply to a request for comment.
Last February, Maginley-Liddie announced a move to 12-hour tours, sparking a wave of anger from the rank and file, including a Feb. 24 shouting, chair-tossing outburst during a meeting in the Eric M. Taylor Center, another jail on Rikers Island, The News previously reported.
Maginley-Liddie backed down from the move a week later, with the officers’ union president Benny Boscio crowing that “COBA’s vigorous opposition” had forced her to drop the idea.
Before that, the last major move to 12-hour tours took place in 2021 and 2022, spanning the final period of the de Blasio administration and the first year of the Adams administration.
At the time, officials said the move across all jails was necessary because hundreds of officers went out on sick leave following the pandemic, with some officers abusing the sick-leave process.
Do 12-hour tours make COs safer or more fatigued? Share your thoughts with us:
Corrections1 readers respond
- I worked for 8 years at a level 5 state prison working 12-hour shifts. I loved it. If done right, everyone wins. You only work 14 days a month, every other weekend off. Yes, you work more one week but the next, you only work two days. Everyone gets a weekend off to spend with their family instead of a select few. You are able to make appointments without taking days off. It works out better for everyone. I think most of the negative comments are from people who have never worked a 12-hour shift and/or senior staff who doesn’t want to give up their weekends. I think we should go to 12s.
- Michigan has 12-hour shifts, but a rotating schedule. Every other weekend off and two off during the week. I’m not sure how NY is doing it, but anything more than three straight is TERRIBLE!
- Having worked 20 years in DOC, this is a terrible idea. Staff are automatically stuck for at least 4 hours overtime. Officers have families and responsibilities to get home to.
- The officers would be fatigued if they had to work 12-hour tours, 4 or 5 days a week. And what about the officers’ families and their children. When will they have time for them? Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad if the officers would work 12-hour tours on their 1st day of work and their last day of work in the same week.
- I think 12-hour tours failed in my facility. There were quite a few occasions where we didn’t have enough staff, and there was no available solution.
- I work in Fishkill correctional facility. We’ve been doing 12-hour shifts for over a year. Never get relieved on time but I work 6 a.m. supposedly till 6:30 but I never get relieved till after seven or 7:30. I literally have one hour to spend with my family before I have to get ready for bed. That’s the life of a correctional officer now.
- It makes a CO more tired because they are working 5 or 6 days straight of 12 hours and it makes it dangerous for them plus for the prisoners. People tend to call in sick more frequently.
- I am an officer who opposes this idea. By contract, we are allowed to come in 10 hours after a tour ends. We currently work 16-hour shifts and we also have what are called mutuals, where I can work for a colleague on a shift. For example, I work 7 to 3 but also work 3 to 11. If he or she works 3 to 11, I can pick up their shift on a chosen date so they can have an extra day off, and then they will work my shift on a date I choose within the month so I can have an extra day off. Many COs are parents, and this change will interfere with those who are divorced and allotted time to see their children on a given day but will no longer be able to because of this change. If they switch to 12-hour tours, the mutuals are gone, and the 10 hours between shifts are also gone. We would have to come in on a day off and vice versa to get an additional day off. Most officers live outside the city, so we end up in the same, if not worse, situation we are currently in. To make matters worse, if the person doesn’t come in after your 12-hour tour, you’re stuck, maybe for 24 hours. We’re at risk no matter what. It’s a thankless position, but we, the chosen few, do it nonetheless.
- I’ve worked all shifts in my 27 years in corrections, 12 hours are by far superior. You only work 14 days a month, requires less staffing and every other weekend off. Administered correctly, they are the best.
- The 12-hour tour is going to cause favoritism with the uniform staff. In order to implement 12-hour tours, numerous policies and contracts are being broken. Only certain staff were forced to take part in this pilot program. The way the rotation is set up, there will be one group doing overwhelming tasks while another group will now have minimum tasks and a third group will not be required to participate. Its a horrible plan, and is not the same plan of action when it was implemented in 2020. I respect all the management, but they are really not looking at the overall consequences of re implementing this pilot program with there plan of action. It will opens the city to EEO and litigation. Can they really afford more lawsuits? Praying for the frontline. So sad.
- I think it makes conditions safer with better staffing. We work 12-hour shifts and it works out.
—
©2025 New York Daily News. Visit at nydailynews.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
