Correctional Officers and Jailers
Tasks
Core Tasks Include:
- Guard facility entrances to screen visitors.
- 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.
- Maintain records of prisoners' identification and charges.
- 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.
- 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.
Supplemental Tasks Include:
- Search for and recapture escapees.
- Investigate crimes that have occurred within an institution, or assist police in their investigations of crimes and inmates.
- Supervise and coordinate work of other correctional service officers.
- Sponsor inmate recreational activities, such as newspapers and self-help groups.
- Process or book convicted individuals into prison.
- Take fingerprints of arrestees, prisoners, or the general public.
The data sources for the information displayed here include: O*NET™. (Using onet28)
