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Correctional Officers and Jailers
Guard inmates in penal or rehabilitative institutions in accordance with established regulations and procedures. May guard prisoners in transit between jail, courtroom, prison, or other point. Includes deputy sheriffs and police who spend the majority of their time guarding prisoners in correctional institutions.
Also Known As:
Booking Officer
Community Services Officer (CSO)
Correctional Officer
Corrections Officer (CO)
Deputy Jailer
Detention Deputy
Detention Officer
Jail Officer
Jailer
Jailor
Wages
Annual wages for Correctional Officers and Jailers in United States
Job Outlook
Below Average
New job opportunities are less likely in the future
United States
2034 Projected Employment
357,400
-8% Change From 2024
Explore Correctional Officers and Jailers video
Tasks you might complete in a day.
- Inspect conditions of locks, window bars, grills, doors, and gates at correctional facilities to ensure security and help prevent escapes.
- Inspect mail for the presence of contraband.
- Sponsor inmate recreational activities, such as newspapers and self-help groups.
- Counsel inmates and respond to legitimate questions, concerns, and requests.
- Supervise and coordinate work of other correctional service officers.
- Drive passenger vehicles and trucks used to transport inmates to other institutions, courtrooms, hospitals, and work sites.
- Issue clothing, tools, and other authorized items to inmates.
- Guard facility entrances to screen visitors.
- Use nondisciplinary tools and equipment, such as a computer.
- Arrange daily schedules for prisoners, including library visits, work assignments, family visits, and counseling appointments.
- Assign duties to inmates, providing instructions as needed.
- Take fingerprints of arrestees, prisoners, or the general public.
- Monitor conduct of prisoners in housing unit, or during work or recreational activities, according to established policies, regulations, and procedures, to prevent escape or violence.
- Use weapons, handcuffs, and physical force to maintain discipline and order among prisoners.
- Record information, such as prisoner identification, charges, and incidents of inmate disturbance, keeping daily logs of prisoner activities.
- Maintain records of prisoners' identification and charges.
- Participate in required job training.
- Search for and recapture escapees.
- Investigate crimes that have occurred within an institution, or assist police in their investigations of crimes and inmates.
- Use nondisciplinary tools and equipment, such as a computer.
- Conduct fire, safety, and sanitation inspections.
- Serve meals, distribute commissary items, and dispense prescribed medication to prisoners.
- Settle disputes between inmates.
- Take prisoners into custody and escort to locations within and outside of facility, such as visiting room, courtroom, or airport.
- Provide to supervisors oral and written reports of the quality and quantity of work performed by inmates, inmate disturbances and rule violations, and unusual occurrences.
- Serve meals, distribute commissary items, and dispense prescribed medication to prisoners.
- Counsel inmates and respond to legitimate questions, concerns, and requests.
- Process or book convicted individuals into prison.
- Search prisoners and vehicles and conduct shakedowns of cells for valuables and contraband, such as weapons or drugs.
- Search prisoners and vehicles and conduct shakedowns of cells for valuables and contraband, such as weapons or drugs.
- Conduct fire, safety, and sanitation inspections.
- Conduct head counts to ensure that each prisoner is present.
- Conduct fire, safety, and sanitation inspections.
Subject areas you may need to master.
- Medicine and Dentistry - Knowledge of the information and techniques needed to diagnose and treat human injuries, diseases, and deformities. This includes symptoms, treatment alternatives, drug properties and interactions, and preventive health-care measures.
- Education and Training - Knowledge of principles and methods for curriculum and training design, teaching and instruction for individuals and groups, and the measurement of training effects.
- Sociology and Anthropology - Knowledge of group behavior and dynamics, societal trends and influences, human migrations, ethnicity, cultures, and their history and origins.
- Computers and Electronics - Knowledge of circuit boards, processors, chips, electronic equipment, and computer hardware and software, including applications and programming.
- Administrative - Knowledge of administrative and office procedures and systems such as word processing, managing files and records, stenography and transcription, designing forms, and workplace terminology.
- Engineering and Technology - Knowledge of the practical application of engineering science and technology. This includes applying principles, techniques, procedures, and equipment to the design and production of various goods and services.
- Psychology - Knowledge of human behavior and performance; individual differences in ability, personality, and interests; learning and motivation; psychological research methods; and the assessment and treatment of behavioral and affective disorders.
- Biology - Knowledge of plant and animal organisms, their tissues, cells, functions, interdependencies, and interactions with each other and the environment.
- Telecommunications - Knowledge of transmission, broadcasting, switching, control, and operation of telecommunications systems.
- Customer and Personal Service - Knowledge of principles and processes for providing customer and personal services. This includes customer needs assessment, meeting quality standards for services, and evaluation of customer satisfaction.
- Mechanical - Knowledge of machines and tools, including their designs, uses, repair, and maintenance.
- Transportation - Knowledge of principles and methods for moving people or goods by air, rail, sea, or road, including the relative costs and benefits.
- History and Archeology - Knowledge of historical events and their causes, indicators, and effects on civilizations and cultures.
- Chemistry - Knowledge of the chemical composition, structure, and properties of substances and of the chemical processes and transformations that they undergo. This includes uses of chemicals and their interactions, danger signs, production techniques, and disposal methods.
- Geography - Knowledge of principles and methods for describing the features of land, sea, and air masses, including their physical characteristics, locations, interrelationships, and distribution of plant, animal, and human life.
- Therapy and Counseling - Knowledge of principles, methods, and procedures for diagnosis, treatment, and rehabilitation of physical and mental dysfunctions, and for career counseling and guidance.
- Law and Government - Knowledge of laws, legal codes, court procedures, precedents, government regulations, executive orders, agency rules, and the democratic political process.
- Food Production - Knowledge of techniques and equipment for planting, growing, and harvesting food products (both plant and animal) for consumption, including storage/handling techniques.
- English Language - Knowledge of the structure and content of the English language including the meaning and spelling of words, and rules of composition and grammar.
- Fine Arts - Knowledge of the theory and techniques required to compose, produce, and perform works of music, dance, visual arts, drama, and sculpture.
- Public Safety and Security - Knowledge of relevant equipment, policies, procedures, and strategies to promote effective local, state, or national security operations for the protection of people, data, property, and institutions.
- Building and Construction - Knowledge of materials, methods, and the tools involved in the construction or repair of houses, buildings, or other structures such as highways and roads.
- Philosophy and Theology - Knowledge of different philosophical systems and religions. This includes their basic principles, values, ethics, ways of thinking, customs, practices, and their impact on human culture.
- Economics and Accounting - Knowledge of economic and accounting principles and practices, the financial markets, banking, and the analysis and reporting of financial data.
- Design - Knowledge of design techniques, tools, and principles involved in production of precision technical plans, blueprints, drawings, and models.
- Administration and Management - Knowledge of business and management principles involved in strategic planning, resource allocation, human resources modeling, leadership technique, production methods, and coordination of people and resources.
- Foreign Language - Knowledge of the structure and content of a foreign (non-English) language including the meaning and spelling of words, rules of composition and grammar, and pronunciation.
- Production and Processing - Knowledge of raw materials, production processes, quality control, costs, and other techniques for maximizing the effective manufacture and distribution of goods.
- Physics - Knowledge and prediction of physical principles, laws, their interrelationships, and applications to understanding fluid, material, and atmospheric dynamics, and mechanical, electrical, atomic and sub-atomic structures and processes.
- Personnel and Human Resources - Knowledge of principles and procedures for personnel recruitment, selection, training, compensation and benefits, labor relations and negotiation, and personnel information systems.
- Mathematics - Knowledge of arithmetic, algebra, geometry, calculus, statistics, and their applications.
- Sales and Marketing - Knowledge of principles and methods for showing, promoting, and selling products or services. This includes marketing strategy and tactics, product demonstration, sales techniques, and sales control systems.
- Communications and Media - Knowledge of media production, communication, and dissemination techniques and methods. This includes alternative ways to inform and entertain via written, oral, and visual media.
Strengths you may need in this role.
- Monitoring - Keeping track of how well people and/or groups are doing in order to make improvements.
- Equipment Selection - Deciding what kind of tools and equipment are needed to do a job.
- Critical Thinking - Thinking about the pros and cons of different ways to solve a problem.
- Judgment and Decision Making - Thinking about the pros and cons of different options and picking the best one.
- Equipment Maintenance - Planning and doing the basic maintenance on equipment.
- Coordination - Changing what is done based on other people's actions.
- Installation - Installing equipment, machines, wiring, or computer programs.
- Learning Strategies - Using the best training or teaching strategies for learning new things.
- Troubleshooting - Figuring out what is causing equipment, machines, wiring, or computer programs to not work.
- Science - Using scientific rules and strategies to solve problems.
- Mathematics - Using math to solve problems.
- Quality Control Analysis - Testing how well a product or service works.
- Operation and Control - Using equipment or systems.
- Operations Monitoring - Watching gauges, dials, or display screens to make sure a machine is working.
- Systems Analysis - Figuring out how a system should work and how changes in the future will affect it.
- Negotiation - Bringing people together to solve differences.
- Complex Problem Solving - Noticing a problem and figuring out the best way to solve it.
- Speaking - Talking to others.
- Management of Material Resources - Managing equipment and materials.
- Programming - Writing computer programs.
- Service Orientation - Looking for ways to help people.
- Operations Analysis - Figuring out what a product or service needs to be able to do.
- Writing - Writing things for co-workers or customers.
- Repairing - Repairing machines or systems using the right tools.
- Reading Comprehension - Reading work-related information.
- Active Learning - Figuring out how to use new ideas or things.
- Time Management - Managing your time and the time of other people.
- Social Perceptiveness - Understanding people's reactions.
- Management of Personnel Resources - Selecting and managing the best workers for a job.
- Active Listening - Listening to others, not interrupting, and asking good questions.
- Technology Design - Making equipment and technology useful for customers.
- Management of Financial Resources - Making spending decisions and keeping track of what is spent.
- Systems Evaluation - Measuring how well a system is working and how to improve it.
- Instructing - Teaching people how to do something.
- Persuasion - Talking people into changing their minds or their behavior.
- Oral Comprehension - Listening and understanding what people say.
- Speed of Closure - Quickly knowing what you are looking at.
- Visual Color Discrimination - Noticing the difference between colors, including shades and brightness.
- Sound Localization - Noticing the direction that a sound came from.
- Gross Body Equilibrium - Keeping your balance or staying upright.
- Far Vision - Seeing details that are far away.
- Time Sharing - Doing two or more things at the same time.
- Spatial Orientation - Knowing where things are around you.
- Oral Expression - Communicating by speaking.
- Dynamic Flexibility - Quickly and repeatedly bending, stretching, twisting, or reaching out with your body, arms, and/or legs.
- Gross Body Coordination - Moving your arms, legs, and mid-section together while your whole body is moving.
- Flexibility of Closure - Seeing hidden patterns.
- Glare Sensitivity - Seeing something even if there is a glare or very bright light.
- Stamina - Exercising for a long time without getting out of breath.
- Problem Sensitivity - Noticing when problems happen.
- Wrist-Finger Speed - Making fast, simple, repeated movements of your fingers, hands, and wrists.
- Reaction Time - Quickly moving your hand, finger, or foot based on a sound, light, picture or other command.
- Rate Control - Changing when and how fast you move based on how something else is moving.
- Selective Attention - Paying attention to something without being distracted.
- Manual Dexterity - Holding or moving items with your hands.
- Written Expression - Communicating by writing.
- Inductive Reasoning - Making general rules or coming up with answers from lots of detailed information.
- Memorization - Remembering words, numbers, pictures, or steps.
- Near Vision - Seeing details up close.
- Hearing Sensitivity - Telling the difference between sounds.
- Night Vision - Seeing at night or under low light.
- Speech Recognition - Recognizing spoken words.
- Arm-Hand Steadiness - Keeping your arm or hand steady.
- Multilimb Coordination - Using your arms and/or legs together while sitting, standing, or lying down.
- Originality - Creating new and original ideas.
- Category Flexibility - Grouping things in different ways.
- Fluency of Ideas - Coming up with lots of ideas.
- Information Ordering - Ordering or arranging things.
- Perceptual Speed - Quickly comparing groups of letters, numbers, pictures, or other things.
- Dynamic Strength - Exercising for a long time without your muscles getting tired.
- Depth Perception - Deciding which thing is closer or farther away from you, or deciding how far away it is from you.
- Written Comprehension - Reading and understanding what is written.
- Mathematical Reasoning - Choosing the right type of math to solve a problem.
- Deductive Reasoning - Using rules to solve problems.
- Number Facility - Adding, subtracting, multiplying, or dividing.
- Peripheral Vision - Seeing something to your side when your are looking ahead.
- Extent Flexibility - Bending, stretching, twisting, or reaching with your body, arms, and/or legs.
- Speech Clarity - Speaking clearly.
- Trunk Strength - Using your lower back and stomach.
- Auditory Attention - Paying attention to one sound while there are other distracting sounds.
- Visualization - Imagining how something will look after it is moved around or changed.
- Response Orientation - Quickly deciding if you should move your hand, foot, or other body part.
- Control Precision - Quickly changing the controls of a machine, car, truck or boat.
- Finger Dexterity - Putting together small parts with your fingers.
- Speed of Limb Movement - Quickly moving your arms and legs.
- Static Strength - Lifting, pushing, pulling, or carrying.
- Explosive Strength - Jumping, sprinting, or throwing something.
Average Education Attained
Highest level of education earned by people in this career.
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Content sourced from United States Department of Labor Employment and Training Administration ("DOLETA") and the Minnesota Department of Employment & Economic Development ("DEED")