Correctional Officer Skills & Requirements (2026 Data)
Skills, experience and job titles from 1,034 US job postings by 395 employers. Data as of October 2026.
What US employers post for correctional officers: advertised pay, the skills and experience they ask for, and the job titles they use, from 1,034 open job postings (October 2026).
- The skills that most set correctional officer postings apart are sound judgment, good judgment, integrity.
- Postings that state a minimum ask for a median of 1 year of experience.
Correctional Officer job postings in the US, October 2026
- 1,034
- US job postings from 395 employers
- 1 year
- Median experience asked
How much does a correctional officer make?
Figure withheld: fewer than 250 US postings list pay. How we decide.
What is the starting salary for a correctional officer?
Figure withheld: fewer than 250 US postings list pay. How we decide.
Skills employers ask for in correctional officer job postings
| Skill | Share of postings |
|---|---|
| Communication | 17% |
| Interpersonal skills | 10% |
| Sound judgment | 9% |
| Integrity | 8% |
| Communicate effectively | 7% |
| Customer service | 7% |
| Professionalism | 6% |
| Good judgment | 6% |
| Problem-solving | 6% |
| Attention to detail | 5% |
Skills named in the posting text; at most 20 postings per employer; US, October 2026. Methodology.
Skills that set correctional officers apart
- Sound judgment7.6× as often as in all postings · 9%
- Good judgment8.7× as often as in all postings · 6%
- Integrity3.2× as often as in all postings · 8%
Skills named in at least 5% of these postings and at least 3 times as often as in job postings overall.
Have a correctional officer job posting in front of you? See which of its skills your resume is missing.
What does a correctional officer do?
Employers post these jobs as Detention Officer, Corrections Officer, Corrections Deputy, Juvenile Detention Officer, Detention Deputy and other titles. The largest specializations are Detention Officer (91%).
The closest official occupation is Correctional Officers and Jailers (33-3012.00). Its most important tasks:
- Conduct head counts to ensure that each prisoner is present.
- Inspect conditions of locks, window bars, grills, doors, and gates at correctional facilities to ensure security and help prevent escapes.
- 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.
- Search prisoners and vehicles and conduct shakedowns of cells for valuables and contraband, such as weapons or drugs.
- Guard facility entrances to screen visitors.
Source: O*NET 31.0 Database, U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (CC BY 4.0).
How much experience do you need to be a correctional officer?
Among 293 postings that state a minimum, the median is 1 year. 0% say 0 years and 56% ask for 1 year or less.
Minimum experience asked in 293 US correctional officer job postings: median 1 year, and 56% ask for 1 year or less.
The figures as a table
| Minimum experience asked | Share of postings |
|---|---|
| 0 yr | 1% |
| 1 yr | 54% |
| 2 yrs | 21% |
| 3-4 yrs | 13% |
| 5-7 yrs | 6% |
| 8-9 yrs | 0% |
| 10+ yrs | 4% |
Postings that state a minimum (required or preferred); at most 20 postings per employer; US, October 2026.
We do not show a degree figure: in our checks, degree requirements in posting text were found too rarely to publish one. Why.
Other names for a correctional officer: job titles employers use
| Job title | Employers using it |
|---|---|
| Detention Officer | 96 (24.3%) |
| Correctional Officer | 79 (20.0%) |
| Corrections Officer | 41 (10.4%) |
| Corrections Deputy | 28 (7.1%) |
| Juvenile Detention Officer | 28 (7.1%) |
| Detention Deputy | 24 (6.1%) |
| Sergeant | 19 (4.8%) |
| Correctional Officer I | 14 (3.5%) |
| Juvenile Supervision Officer | 12 (3.0%) |
| Jailer | 11 (2.8%) |
| Corrections Officer I | 10 (2.5%) |
| Detention Officer I | 10 (2.5%) |
| Juvenile Detention Officer I | 7 (1.8%) |
| Jail Officer | 7 (1.8%) |
| Jail Deputy | 7 (1.8%) |
| Detention Specialist | 6 (1.5%) |
| Correction Officer | 6 (1.5%) |
| Correctional Deputy I | 5 (1.3%) |
| Juvenile Corrections Officer | 5 (1.3%) |
| Custody Officer | 5 (1.3%) |
Titles read in our audit and used by at least 3 employers.
Correctional Officer compared with similar careers
| Career | Median pay | Median experience | Postings | Shares N of top 25 skills |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Correctional Officer | – | 1 year | 1,034 | – |
| Police Officer | $71K | 2 years | 2,690 | 15 |
| Security Officer | $20.50/hr | 2 years | 32,553 | 15 |
| Firefighter | – | – | 956 | 14 |
| Lifeguard | $17.50/hr | 1 year | 2,796 | 12 |
Similar careers
| Career | Shares N of the top 25 skills | Median pay |
|---|---|---|
| Police Officer | 15 | $71K |
| Security Officer | 15 | $20.50/hr |
| Firefighter | 14 | – |
| Lifeguard | 12 | $17.50/hr |
| Sports Coach | 12 | $20.00/hr |
| Dispatcher | 12 | $22.21/hr |
Applying for correctional officer jobs?
- Correctional officer resume examples: one-page examples for these roles
- Match your resume to a job: paste a posting and see the skills your resume is missing
- Check your resume: see how an applicant tracking system reads it
- Find correctional officer jobs: search open postings
Source and method
Open US job postings collected from employers' applicant tracking systems, de-duplicated, counted only when their job title was read in our audit. Shares count at most 20 postings per employer, and franchise locations of one brand count as one employer. Pay uses hourly and annual figures only; a figure is shown when leaving out the largest employer moves it by 10% or less. Every figure states its number of postings. Methodology and measured accuracy.
Accuracy check: we read 19 randomly chosen postings counted on this page in full; 17 of them were this career or a closely related one (October 2026).
Download the figures on this page (CSV): every number above with its count of postings. Aggregate figures are licensed CC BY 4.0; cite the page when you reuse them.