How To Become A Prison Officer: What It Is and Career Path

What is a prison officer 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 prison officer. For example, did you know that they make an average of $21.12 an hour? That's $43,925 a year! Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow -10% and produce -42,200 job opportunities across the U.S.

ScorePrison OfficerUS Average

Salary

3.4

Avg. Salary $43,925

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

10.0

Growth rate -10%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

7.2

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.93%

Asian 2.30%

Black or African American 17.38%

Hispanic or Latino 13.09%

Unknown 5.18%

White 61.12%

Gender

female 17.86%

male 82.14%

Age - 40

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 - 40

Stress level

10.0

Stress level is very high

7.1 - high

Complexity level

8.0

Complexity level is challenging

7 - challenging

Work life balance

5.7

Work life balance is fair

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a prison officer

Explore prison officer education requirements

Most common prison officer degrees

Bachelor's

33.3 %

High School Diploma

27.8 %

Diploma

16.7 %

Start to develop specific prison officer skills

Skills	Percentages
Security Checks	58.36%
Incident Reports	41.64%

Complete relevant prison officer training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 1-3 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New prison officers 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 prison officer based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real prison officer resumes.

Research prison officer duties and responsibilities

Complete fire safety, CPR, self-defense and investigation/observation training, along with behavioral awareness/management training.
Serve as loader of special ammunition weapon; prepare ammunition while exercising safety precautions.

Prepare your prison officer resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your prison officer 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 prison officer resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose from 10+ customizable prison officer resume templates

Build a professional prison officer 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 prison officer resume.