Today's Jails : Recruitment

Some Good News In This Terrible Economy

Sandy Schilling — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 17:17:00 GMT

Jails and Correctional Agencies are still hiring! The recruitment, hiring, and retention of staff has been a critical issue over the past few years. I recently attended a Colorado Jail Association meeting where several agencies shared some of their recruitment strategies including hiring 19 year olds, recruiting out of state, hiring veterans, and creating some civilian jail positions. Due to significant growth one county hired 109 correctional officers over the past two years. Job seekers can search county, state, federal, and commercial websites for current job openings.

Resources on Recruitment, Hiring, and Retention

Sandy Schilling — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 17:36:00 GMT

The Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) has posted a CD-Rom Recruitment, Hiring, and Retention Resources which "contains descriptions of and links to resources from the COPS Office, other Department of Justice divisions, and law enforcement organizations that will help police chiefs and sheriffs find, train, and retain qualified staff." Although the primary emphasis is intended for law enforcement much of the information is useful in a jail application. The table of contents includes:

Recruitment and Hiring
Retention and Training
Ethics and Integrity
Early Intervention
Managing Stress

Jail Recruitment: Take this Survey to Share Your Input

Sandy Schilling — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 11:30:00 GMT

As part of their project, The Future is Now: Recruiting, Retaining, and Developing the 21st Century Jail Workforce, the Center for Innovative Public Policies (CIPP), is launching two online surveys on April 1. One is for jail administrators to complete, and the second is targeted to line staff.

The project is funded by the U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Assistance. Other partners in the initiative are the American Jail Association, the American Correctional Association, and the National Sheriffs' Association. The survey will run from April 1st - 25th, 2008.

These surveys are "the first of their kind to be administered nationally." All line staff and jail administrators are encouraged to participate in this groundbreaking project. Answers are fully confidential and will be used to develop recommendations for the recruitment and hiring of jail staff in agencies nationwide.

Click here to take the line-level survey or the jail administrator survey.