How To Become A Detention Worker: What It Is and Career Path

What is a detention worker and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

2 min read

There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a detention worker. For example, did you know that they make an average of $16.86 an hour? That's $35,072 a year! Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 10% and produce 28,100 job opportunities across the U.S.

ScoreDetention WorkerUS Average

Salary

2.7

Avg. Salary $35,072

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

9.1

Growth rate 10%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

9.8

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.74%

Asian 5.07%

Black or African American 10.41%

Hispanic or Latino 15.12%

Unknown 6.05%

White 62.62%

Gender

female 44.94%

male 55.06%

Age - 43

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 43

Stress level

9.1

Stress level is very high

7.1 - high

Complexity level

7.9

Complexity level is challenging

7 - challenging

Work life balance

7.5

Work life balance is good

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a detention worker

Explore detention worker education requirements

Most common detention worker degrees

Bachelor's

54.5 %

Associate

20.5 %

High School Diploma

11.6 %

Start to develop specific detention worker skills

Skills	Percentages
Crisis Intervention	22.39%
Perform Intake	13.27%
Incident Reports	12.50%
Emergency Situations	12.14%
CPR	6.82%

Complete relevant detention worker training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 1-3 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New detention workers learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as a detention worker based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real detention worker resumes.

Research detention worker duties and responsibilities

Lead support groups with an emphasis on recovery and strength base techniques, DBT, CBT, self-care and coping skills.
Recognize risk factors quickly, collaborate with interdisciplinary team, nurture positive relationships with patients through consistency and modeling healthy boundaries.
Examine injured persons and administer first aid or cardiopulmonary resuscitation, if necessary, using training and medical supplies and equipment.

Prepare your detention worker resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your detention worker resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on a detention worker resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose from 10+ customizable detention worker resume templates

Build a professional detention worker resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your detention worker resume.