Correctional Officers and Jailer 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.
Correctional Officers and Jailer is Also Know as
In different settings, Correctional Officers and Jailer is titled as
- Booking Officer
- Community Services Officer (CSO)
- Correctional Officer
- Corrections Officer (CO)
- Deputy Jailer
- Detention Deputy
- Detention Officer
- Jail Officer
- Jailer
- Jailor
Education and Training of Correctional Officers and Jailer
Correctional Officers and Jailer is categorized in Job Zone Two: Some Preparation Needed
Experience Required for Correctional Officers and Jailer
Some previous work-related skill, knowledge, or experience is usually needed. For example, a teller would benefit from experience working directly with the public.
Education Required for Correctional Officers and Jailer
These occupations usually require a high school diploma.
Degrees Related to Correctional Officers and Jailer
- Bachelor in Criminal Justice and Corrections, General
- Associate Degree Courses in Criminal Justice and Corrections, General
- Masters Degree Courses in Criminal Justice and Corrections, General
- Bachelor in Corrections
- Associate Degree Courses in Corrections
- Masters Degree Courses in Corrections
- Bachelor in Juvenile Corrections
- Associate Degree Courses in Juvenile Corrections
- Masters Degree Courses in Juvenile Corrections
- Bachelor in Corrections and Criminal Justice, Other
- Associate Degree Courses in Corrections and Criminal Justice, Other
- Masters Degree Courses in Corrections and Criminal Justice, Other
Training Required for Correctional Officers and Jailer
Employees in these occupations need anywhere from a few months to one year of working with experienced employees. A recognized apprenticeship program may be associated with these occupations.
Related Ocuupations
Some Ocuupations related to Correctional Officers and Jailer in different industries are
- First-Line Supervisors of Correctional Officers
- Probation Officers and Correctional Treatment Specialists
- Police and Sheriff's Patrol Officers
- Bailiffs
- First-Line Supervisors of Police and Detectives
- Detectives and Criminal Investigators
- Transit and Railroad Police
- Security Guards
- First-Line Supervisors of Security Workers
- Private Detectives and Investigators
- Social and Community Service Managers
- Residential Advisors
- Public Safety Telecommunicators
- Psychiatric Aides
- Court, Municipal, and License Clerks
- Child, Family, and School Social Workers
- Criminal Justice and Law Enforcement Teachers, Postsecondary
- First-Line Supervisors of Firefighting and Prevention Workers
- Coroners
- Rehabilitation Counselors
What Do Correctional Officers and Jailer do?
- Guard facility entrances to screen visitors.
- Search for and recapture escapees.
- Inspect mail for the presence of contraband.
- Take prisoners into custody and escort to locations within and outside of facility, such as visiting room, courtroom, or airport.
- Use weapons, handcuffs, and physical force to maintain discipline and order among prisoners.
- Conduct fire, safety, and sanitation inspections.
- 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.
- Settle disputes between inmates.
- Drive passenger vehicles and trucks used to transport inmates to other institutions, courtrooms, hospitals, and work sites.
- Arrange daily schedules for prisoners, including library visits, work assignments, family visits, and counseling appointments.
- Assign duties to inmates, providing instructions as needed.
- Issue clothing, tools, and other authorized items to inmates.
- Investigate crimes that have occurred within an institution, or assist police in their investigations of crimes and inmates.
- Maintain records of prisoners' identification and charges.
- Supervise and coordinate work of other correctional service officers.
- Sponsor inmate recreational activities, such as newspapers and self-help groups.
- Conduct head counts to ensure that each prisoner is present.
- 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.
- Inspect conditions of locks, window bars, grills, doors, and gates at correctional facilities to ensure security and help prevent escapes.
- Record information, such as prisoner identification, charges, and incidents of inmate disturbance, keeping daily logs of prisoner activities.
- Search prisoners and vehicles and conduct shakedowns of cells for valuables and contraband, such as weapons or drugs.
- Process or book convicted individuals into prison.
- Participate in required job training.
- Serve meals, distribute commissary items, and dispense prescribed medication to prisoners.
- Counsel inmates and respond to legitimate questions, concerns, and requests.
- Use nondisciplinary tools and equipment, such as a computer.
- Take fingerprints of arrestees, prisoners, or the general public.
Qualities of Good Correctional Officers and Jailer
- Oral Comprehension: The ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences.
- Oral Expression: The ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand.
- Problem Sensitivity: The ability to tell when something is wrong or is likely to go wrong. It does not involve solving the problem, only recognizing that there is a problem.
- Speech Clarity: The ability to speak clearly so others can understand you.
- Deductive Reasoning: The ability to apply general rules to specific problems to produce answers that make sense.
- Inductive Reasoning: The ability to combine pieces of information to form general rules or conclusions (includes finding a relationship among seemingly unrelated events).
- Speech Recognition: The ability to identify and understand the speech of another person.
- Near Vision: The ability to see details at close range (within a few feet of the observer).
- Written Comprehension: The ability to read and understand information and ideas presented in writing.
- Selective Attention: The ability to concentrate on a task over a period of time without being distracted.
- Far Vision: The ability to see details at a distance.
- Flexibility of Closure: The ability to identify or detect a known pattern (a figure, object, word, or sound) that is hidden in other distracting material.
- Information Ordering: The ability to arrange things or actions in a certain order or pattern according to a specific rule or set of rules (e.g., patterns of numbers, letters, words, pictures, mathematical operations).
- Stamina: The ability to exert yourself physically over long periods of time without getting winded or out of breath.
- Static Strength: The ability to exert maximum muscle force to lift, push, pull, or carry objects.
- Written Expression: The ability to communicate information and ideas in writing so others will understand.
- Auditory Attention: The ability to focus on a single source of sound in the presence of other distracting sounds.
- Extent Flexibility: The ability to bend, stretch, twist, or reach with your body, arms, and/or legs.
- Trunk Strength: The ability to use your abdominal and lower back muscles to support part of the body repeatedly or continuously over time without "giving out" or fatiguing.
- Dynamic Strength: The ability to exert muscle force repeatedly or continuously over time. This involves muscular endurance and resistance to muscle fatigue.
- Explosive Strength: The ability to use short bursts of muscle force to propel oneself (as in jumping or sprinting), or to throw an object.
- Reaction Time: The ability to quickly respond (with the hand, finger, or foot) to a signal (sound, light, picture) when it appears.
- Multilimb Coordination: The ability to coordinate two or more limbs (for example, two arms, two legs, or one leg and one arm) while sitting, standing, or lying down. It does not involve performing the activities while the whole body is in motion.
- Manual Dexterity: The ability to quickly move your hand, your hand together with your arm, or your two hands to grasp, manipulate, or assemble objects.
- Perceptual Speed: The ability to quickly and accurately compare similarities and differences among sets of letters, numbers, objects, pictures, or patterns. The things to be compared may be presented at the same time or one after the other. This ability also includes comparing a presented object with a remembered object.
- Arm-Hand Steadiness: The ability to keep your hand and arm steady while moving your arm or while holding your arm and hand in one position.
- Time Sharing: The ability to shift back and forth between two or more activities or sources of information (such as speech, sounds, touch, or other sources).
- Hearing Sensitivity: The ability to detect or tell the differences between sounds that vary in pitch and loudness.
- Fluency of Ideas: The ability to come up with a number of ideas about a topic (the number of ideas is important, not their quality, correctness, or creativity).
- Speed of Closure: The ability to quickly make sense of, combine, and organize information into meaningful patterns.
- Visualization: The ability to imagine how something will look after it is moved around or when its parts are moved or rearranged.
- Finger Dexterity: The ability to make precisely coordinated movements of the fingers of one or both hands to grasp, manipulate, or assemble very small objects.
- Response Orientation: The ability to choose quickly between two or more movements in response to two or more different signals (lights, sounds, pictures). It includes the speed with which the correct response is started with the hand, foot, or other body part.
- Control Precision: The ability to quickly and repeatedly adjust the controls of a machine or a vehicle to exact positions.
- Category Flexibility: The ability to generate or use different sets of rules for combining or grouping things in different ways.
- Speed of Limb Movement: The ability to quickly move the arms and legs.
- Visual Color Discrimination: The ability to match or detect differences between colors, including shades of color and brightness.
- Gross Body Coordination: The ability to coordinate the movement of your arms, legs, and torso together when the whole body is in motion.
- Depth Perception: The ability to judge which of several objects is closer or farther away from you, or to judge the distance between you and an object.
- Gross Body Equilibrium: The ability to keep or regain your body balance or stay upright when in an unstable position.
- Memorization: The ability to remember information such as words, numbers, pictures, and procedures.
- Originality: The ability to come up with unusual or clever ideas about a given topic or situation, or to develop creative ways to solve a problem.
- Rate Control: The ability to time your movements or the movement of a piece of equipment in anticipation of changes in the speed and/or direction of a moving object or scene.
- Peripheral Vision: The ability to see objects or movement of objects to one's side when the eyes are looking ahead.
- Spatial Orientation: The ability to know your location in relation to the environment or to know where other objects are in relation to you.
- Number Facility: The ability to add, subtract, multiply, or divide quickly and correctly.
- Sound Localization: The ability to tell the direction from which a sound originated.
- Mathematical Reasoning: The ability to choose the right mathematical methods or formulas to solve a problem.
- Glare Sensitivity: The ability to see objects in the presence of a glare or bright lighting.
- Night Vision: The ability to see under low-light conditions.
- Wrist-Finger Speed: The ability to make fast, simple, repeated movements of the fingers, hands, and wrists.
- Dynamic Flexibility: The ability to quickly and repeatedly bend, stretch, twist, or reach out with your body, arms, and/or legs.
Tools Used by Correctional Officers and Jailer
- Air-supplying respirators
- Cut resistant gloves
- Data collectors
- Desktop computers
- Electroshock weapons
- Emergency fire extinguishers
- Emergency fire hoses
- Expandable batons
- Firefighting respirators
- Hearing protection plugs
- Laptop computers
- Law enforcement flashlights
- Law enforcement handguns
- Law enforcement rifles
- Law enforcement shotguns
- Leg irons
- Lower body armor
- Metal handcuffs
- Mobile radios
- Personal computers
- Prisoner transport belts
- Protective gas masks
- Protective safety glasses
- Radio frequency identification RFID devices
- Riot protection helmets
- Stab proof vests
- Surveillance cameras
- Tablet computers
- Tactical riot shields
- Upper body armor
Technology Skills required for Correctional Officers and Jailer
- 3M Electronic Monitoring
- Adobe Acrobat
- Corrections housing software
- Guardian RFID
- Jail management software
- Microsoft Access
- Microsoft Excel
- Microsoft Office software
- Microsoft Outlook
- Microsoft PowerPoint
- Microsoft Word
- Web browser software
- Word processing software