Prison wardens, also called prison administrators or commanders, are career corrections professionals. They typically have many years of service before being appointed to oversee a prison, which can have hundreds of employees and thousands of inmates, with multi-million dollar budgets. These are, in essence, self-contained cities with their own food service, laundry, hospital, recreation facilities, industries and a fleet of vehicles. It requires a very high level of responsibility. Use these tips if you're considering becoming a prison warden.
- Education. Most prison administrators have college degrees, and many have graduate degrees. Major fields of study can be criminal justice, criminology, sociology, and public administration. The prison administrator has to be something of a politician, as he will often go before state legislature committees and county commissions to defend his budget and obtain funding for new projects or construction.
- Experience. The post of prison warden generally comes toward the end of a career in corrections. While some prison administrators are appointed directly from outside the prison system where they work, most will work their way up through the ranks of corrections officers and middle management.
- Starting jobs. The majority of prison administrators begin their careers as line corrections officers or deputy sheriffs, working in a prison or jail. Promotion to higher ranks is generally achieved through good work performance and doing well on promotional examinations that occur from time to time. It may be necessary to transfer between agencies or facilities as you move up the ranks, as promotional openings may be available at another facility, but not at the one you are assigned at that time.
- Law enforcement roles. The police authority of prison wardens and other corrections personnel varies from state to state. Some may be considered to be regular law enforcement officers in a prison role, and others have police authority only while they are actually on duty at a facility. The day-to-day work in corrections is very different from traditional law enforcement work. Each has a special set of skills and expertise, and knowledge of one does not necessarily translate to the other.
- Recruiting good assistance. The prison administrator is only as good as his staff. Good personnel selection, from the hiring of new corrections officers to appointment of middle management supervisors is critically important to success. Inmates are constantly trying to find ways to subvert the system and violate prison rules without being caught. This involves everything from getting extra servings of dessert to making and concealing improvised weapons. They will co-opt prison employees wherever they can, forcing them to bring in contraband from the outside and otherwise assist them with criminal enterprises. Your staff has to be not only very smart and diligent, but also scrupulously honest.
For many years, corrections has been a swiftly growing industry, as the number of persons under correctional supervision in the United States has doubled since the 1980s. Since the recession and the ensuing reductions in tax collections and government budgets, governments are doing everything they can to reduce prison populations, as it costs billions per year to keep all those inmates behind bars. The job outlook for prison administrators is predicted to be slower than for other industries at about 7%, but compensation will remain about the same, ranging from $57,000 to over $100,000.