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Workforce Transformation

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Corrections is tough work
and staff need to be prepared for it accordingly.



In September of 2008, the Keystone Group met to cast the vision for the initial work initiatives of the Norval Morris Project. Taking into consideration the growth of the corrections population and the awareness that corrections workers are the field's best asset for facing coming challenges, this group's initial discussion focused on two questions:
  1. How can the ability, morale and motivation of Corrections staff be maintained in the face of such high offender failure rates (e.g., 67% for parole)?
  2. Under these conditions, how can we suggest that we aren't just hiring warehouse workers?
In discussing these questions, it was clear that members of this initial topic team placed a high priority on empowering corrections staff. They agreed that improving the field and making correctional agencies employers-of-choice would require significant changes to current recruiting, hiring, and development practices and policies. Endeavoring to determine whether the corrections field is approaching this impending workforce crisis comprehensively and creatively, they noted that a variety of conventional strategies for transforming and upgrading the field of corrections have really never been tried. These include:
  • Developing longer-term recruitment strategies (starting at grade six);
  • Creating a national Corrections College, based on the War College and Teach for America models;
  • Having veteran corrections leaders and academics visit high school or college students to generate interest and convey accurate information about the field;
  • Re-imagining the existing constellation of labor boards, unions, and human resource divisions in solution-producing ways;
  • Increasing and improving training requirements for managers;
  • Creating new kinds of national certification and educational incentives;
  • Providing system-wide cross-training in evidence-based practice and implementation methods; and
  • Exploring new strategies and methods for organizational development (top down) and community development (bottom up).
Several non-conventional strategies for transforming and upgrading the field of corrections were also suggested:
  • Exploring, clarifying, and building staff competencies around boundaries and roles through communities of practice;
  • Creating social network-driven enterprises, including virtual interdisciplinary issue policy groups and communities of practice;
  • Developing regional inter-agency, team-managed, real-solution projects;
  • Investigating possibilities for green prisons and green jobs;
  • Linking funding to results, such as giving workers bonuses for recidivism reductions that fall below baseline levels;
  • Collapsing the boundaries between custodial, treatment, and services staff to increase active involvement in the change processes that boost offender success and reduce recidivism.
This team concluded that professional leaders who understand corrections are essential to the creation of humane and effective prisons, jails, and community corrections agencies. Leaders have the potential to do more than effectively manage organizations and staff. They can work to improve the field, rethink our responses to crime, and inspire others to become the next generation of leaders.[14] The corrections field needs leaders who can help others find meaning in their work and understand how their efforts fit into the larger societal picture.[15] This happens most effectively when leaders choose a positive focus, rather than the traditional problem-focused approach, paving the way for true transformation in those within the field and those who the field serves.

After inviting Project supporters around the country to participate in the Workforce Transformation Team, this team is now:
  • Reviewing relevant literatures,
  • Drafting a comprehensive position paper based on the best approaches for the field of corrections to use as a model for transforming its workforce at the state, local, and national levels; and
  • Developing strategies for improving employee recruitment, hiring, development, and retention across the field of corrections.

Topic Background

The field of corrections, like other human service disciplines, depends heavily on qualified staff to ensure that operations run smoothly, offenders are managed effectively, and public safety is maintained. With the predicted increases in the offender population, one of the most important indicators of the quality of future correctional services will be the quality of future personnel.[1]

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, over 550,000 people were employed in direct adult offender management in 2006.[2] Another 300,000 were employed as frontline workers with juvenile offenders.[3] As these numbers do not account for those who are employed in administrative, staff, or support roles, it is not surprising that personnel costs comprise a major portion of this $50 billion industry.

There is an impending crisis in staffing within federal, state, and local government entities. The baby boomers are beginning to retire, taking their knowledge and skills out of the workforce. Following this experience drain, agencies around the country are now facing the challenges of succession planning. Generally, public service is not on the minds of our country's young people. Those who are interested in public service find the government hiring process to be complex and contorted compared to the private sector.[4] Recruiting and hiring qualified staff to replace those who are aging out of the workforce is now a substantial part of human resource work in corrections agencies.

In 2003, the American Correctional Association conducted a survey of corrections administrators and human resource managers across the country. They found that 72% of the respondents reported some difficulty in recruiting new hires, while 64% said that retention of employees was difficult. Some states and correctional agencies reported that they are continually short staffed, leading to security issues and other challenges.[5]

Unlike their predecessors, today's young workers will average nine jobs between the ages of 18 and 32.[6] This more mobile workforce presents challenges to those who are responsible for filling open positions in prisons, jails, community corrections agencies, and parole and probation offices. The Corrections turnover rate in the first year on the job is 19.92%,[7] resulting in high costs for recruiting, hiring, and training new staff.

In addition to generational changes, the corrections workforce is increasing in gender and racial diversity. In 2001, national surveys found that 79% of correctional officers were male and 72% were white, as opposed to 1992, when 82% were male and 65% were white.[8]

In 2001, the number of inmates per corrections officer in adult corrections institutions ranged from 10.8 in Alabama to 2.6 in the District of Columbia.[9] Since then, average ratios of inmates to prison staff have increased from 4.8 to 5.1 for each staff worker.[10] Caseload size for probation officers varies across and within agency jurisdictions, with smaller numbers for specialized caseloads or higher risk offenders. Many officers now manage caseloads ranging from 20 to 100 active cases.[11]

According to the Annie E. Casey Foundation, the education and training that human service workers get does not match their role requirements and their job demands, as people who take on frontline human service jobs tend to have lower levels of scholastic achievement.[12] Corrections staff education levels vary from sector to sector. Most probation officers are required to have a bachelor's degree. But only 10% of corrections officers in prisons have a bachelor's degree. An additional 10% have associate degrees, while 35% have attended but not completed college, and 43% have only a high school diploma.[13]

Corrections agencies are faced with the combined challenges of modest education levels, lower scholastic performance, increased inmate to staff ratios, high turnover, changing staff demographics, baby boomer retirements, and recruitment and hiring issues. This combination provides significant challenges for the development of the skilled, reflective corrections workers who are capable of supporting the field's shift to evidence-based programs that reduce recidivism and increase public safety.

[ 1] Stinchcomb, J. B. (2005) Corrections: Past, Present, and Future. American Correctional Association.
[ 2] Bureau of Labor Statistics (2006) Occupational Employment, Training and Earnings.
[ 3] The Annie E. Casey Foundation. (2003) The Unsolved Challenge of System Reform: The Condition of the Frontline Human Services Workforce. The Annie E. Casey Foundation.
[ 4] Volcker, P. (2003) Urgent Business for America: Revitalizing the Federal Government for the 21st Century. National Commission on the Public Service.
[ 5] American Correctional Association and Workforce Associates Inc., 2004. A 21st Century Workforce for America's Correctional Profession. American Correctional Association.
[ 6] Arthur, D. (2001) The Employee Recruitment and Retention Handbook. American Management Association.
[ 7] Hill, C. (2007) Corrections Compendium. American Correctional Association.
[ 8] American Correctional Association and Workforce Associates Inc. (2004).
[ 9] Criminal Justice Institute. (2001) Corrections Yearbook. Criminal Justice Institute.
[10] Stephan, J. (2008) Census of State and Federal Correctional Facilities, 2005. Bureau of Justice Statistics.
[11] Bureau of Labor Statistics. Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2008-2009 Edition. Bureau of Labor Statistics
[12] The Annie E. Casey Foundation. (2003)
[13] American Correctional Association and Workforce Associates Inc. (2004)
[14] Jacobs, J. and Olitsky, E. (2003-2004) Leadership & Correctional Reform. Pace Law Review, 24(5).
[15] Cameron, K. (2008) Positive Leadership. Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc.

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