Prison officer vs detention deputy

The differences between prison officers and detention deputies can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. Additionally, a detention deputy has an average salary of $47,384, which is higher than the $43,925 average annual salary of a prison officer.

The top three skills for a prison officer include security checks, incident reports and . The most important skills for a detention deputy are transport inmates, booking, and CPR.

Prison officer vs detention deputy overview

	Prison Officer	Detention Deputy
Yearly salary	$43,925	$47,384
Hourly rate	$21.12	$22.78
Growth rate	-10%	-10%
Number of jobs	57,229	4,147
Job satisfaction	-	-
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 33%	Bachelor's Degree, 35%
Average age	40	40
Years of experience	-	-

Prison officer vs detention deputy salary

Prison officers and detention deputies have different pay scales, as shown below.

	Prison Officer	Detention Deputy
Average salary	$43,925	$47,384
Salary range	Between $33,000 And $58,000	Between $34,000 And $65,000
Highest paying City	-	Urban Honolulu, HI
Highest paying state	-	Washington
Best paying company	-	Wellpath
Best paying industry	-	Government

Differences between prison officer and detention deputy education

There are a few differences between a prison officer and a detention deputy in terms of educational background:

	Prison Officer	Detention Deputy
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 33%	Bachelor's Degree, 35%
Most common major	Criminal Justice	Criminal Justice
Most common college	-	-

Prison officer vs detention deputy demographics

Here are the differences between prison officers' and detention deputies' demographics:

	Prison Officer	Detention Deputy
Average age	40	40
Gender ratio	Male, 82.1% Female, 17.9%	Male, 67.0% Female, 33.0%
Race ratio	Black or African American, 17.4% Unknown, 5.2% Hispanic or Latino, 13.1% Asian, 2.3% White, 61.1% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.9%	Black or African American, 13.7% Unknown, 5.2% Hispanic or Latino, 18.5% Asian, 2.0% White, 59.6% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.9%
LGBT Percentage	6%	6%

Differences between prison officer and detention deputy duties and responsibilities

Prison officer example 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.

Detention deputy example responsibilities.

Train in grind control and self-defense techniques, CPR, ethics and security management.
Oversee all aspects of booking inmates into the jail, including property inventory, pat-down, fingerprinting, and processing daily.
Obtain necessary information and booking of prisoners.
Patrol assign areas for evidence of unauthorize activities, infractions of rules, unsatisfactory attitudes or unsatisfactory adjustment of inmates.
Serve as loader of special ammunition weapon; prepare ammunition while exercising safety precautions.

Prison officer vs detention deputy skills

Common prison officer skills

Security Checks, 58%
Incident Reports, 42%

Common detention deputy skills

Transport Inmates, 14%
Booking, 8%
CPR, 7%
Emergency Situations, 6%
Patrol, 6%
Detention Facility, 6%

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Prison Officer
Prison Officer vs Detention Deputy

Updated January 8, 2025

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