NCJ Number
219299
Journal
Corrections Compendium Volume: 32 Issue: 3 Dated: May/June 2007 Pages: 12-27
Date Published
May 2007
Length
16 pages
Annotation
This article reports findings from a 2004 Corrections Compendium survey on the hiring requirements and wages for correctional officers.
Abstract
The survey was completed by 44 U.S. correctional systems and 4 Canadian systems, 44 percent of which reported problems with officer recruitment. Major obstacles to recruitment were reported as rural locations and lack of resources for competitive wages. Recruitment practices included job fairs, bonus pay for successful employee referrals, media advertising, Internet job postings, and promotions to high school guidance counselors. Only 14 of the reporting correctional systems did not incorporate a variety of pre-employment evaluations into their hiring policies, such as written exams, oral interviews, general background checks, and physical fitness examinations. Fringe benefit packages were available in 55 percent of the reporting agencies. A full 22 percent of reporting U.S. systems did not have written policies in place regarding promotion opportunities and only 66 percent of reporting U.S. systems made full or partial reimbursements for outside educational courses. Despite efforts at retention, the turnover rates for first year correctional officers stood at a dramatically high rate across the corrections systems surveyed, reaching 67 percent in Louisiana. Descriptive summary information accompanies five detailed tables related to the findings. Tables