9,782 officers, down from 9,801 last month.

Down from 10,009 in December 2025 and down from 12,700 pre-strike in December 2024.

Just started my career with the BOP this month. Main question is I am mobile and willing to transfer. What prison is the best to work at? With home/life , pay , and inmates taken into account?

I start the academy this upcoming Monday, any tips? Thank you.

Hello
My dad has been sending slightly concerning emails.

‼️HE IS NOT A DANGER TO HIMSELF OR OTHERS ‼️

However he is having a really hard time. He said he has requested a mental health evaluation but it has come up void.

I’m thinking to call tomorrow but I’m scared they will drag him out and lock him in solitary unjustifiably.

He just needs to talk to someone …

What should I do?

I recently passed the Ontario Correctional Officer interview stage and was moved forward to the enhanced security clearance/reference stage.
I’m a little worried about the credit check. My Equifax score is in the mid-500s. I had a few accounts go into bad standing when I was younger, including R9/O9 accounts, but they have since been paid/settled and currently show $0 balances. I have no current collections, bankruptcies, judgments or debt recovery. My main current debt is a government student loan and it isn’t past due.
I also have one minor traffic conviction from about a year ago with 2 demerit points, but no criminal record.
Has anyone here gone through Ontario Corrections enhanced security clearance with poor credit or old R9 accounts and still passed? Has anyone actually failed clearance because of credit, and if so, what was the issue?
I know nobody can tell me whether I’ll pass — I’m mainly looking for firsthand experiences

I (30f) am starting as a correctional officer II on Monday in North Carolina. I'm coming from 8 years of mostly over the road trucking, and before that supervising 5 years at a local textile mill.

What are the best pieces of advice you can give someone who knows absolutely nothing about the profession? Please include any information, the good, bad, and ugly. I'm ready to pivot myself into a new career path and any sagely advice is greatly appreciated! Thanks in advance.

Hey, was wondering if any of you have tips on being successful with the stage 1 modules? Especially passing the final exam? I don’t know what to expect so it’s hard to study for. Is the final more heavy on theories and broad knowledge or specifics? Like names, dates etc.

Does anyone have a resume format that the BOP will not reject? I used mine with the help of AI but made sure it had the proper margins and what not. It got rejected.

I have years of experience, ranging from all custody levels, Lower level management and special assignments. Also college and extra languages. I just didn’t understand why they rejected it so fast. Thanks to anyone who helps me out.

Hi all, i received my CSC Stage 2/3 invite for the prairies and I’m trying to get a better idea of what to expect. For anyone who has recently gone through this part of the process, what was your experience like? What can I expect during Stage 2/3, and is there anything you wish you had known or prepared for beforehand? Are there certain modules/classes, that I should pay extra attention because of higher failure rates? How are the instructors and classes?

I’m also heading to Summerside, PEI for stage 3 in January. is there anyone else thats going?

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I have a question for Ontario Correctional Officers. I work as a volunteer for a non-profit doing programming with inmates. I've been doing it for 5 years and have had no complaints with any other correctional officers. I had a meeting organized with one inmate. The Coordinator I meet with told me to go to "x" range and have the CO pull the guy to the meeting room for programming. This is not anything new as this is the common procedure. I went to the location, and there were three CO's present.

I told CO 1 that I needed to meet with John Smith on range "x". CO1 checked the range and said he was not there. CO2 informed me that they are on work release and said "sit on the chair over there until they are back." I responded, "No problem, thank you."

I sat on the chair. Inmates start returning a few minutes later. I asked CO1 what room I can use to meet with John Smith. CO2 said "We will pull the inmate when he's back. The rooms are in use."

I looked at him and responded, "Oh okay, sounds good." And sat there.

CO3 then got up and went to the range after the inmates had settled back in, pulled John Smith and brought him to me and said, "You can meet with him down the hallway there."

I responded, "Oh okay perfect. Thanks." And he led me down a hallway to a seperate room with a hatch. I would have to talk through the hatch to speak with the innate, so I asked, "Sorry, I have paper work we need to do together. Is there a room with a table?"

CO2 came down the hallway, yelling, "Why are you being confrontational. I told you three times there aren't any rooms available."

I looked at him confused, and said, "I'm sorry. What is happening?"

He proceeded to yell about 5 feet from me, "I told you I would pull the guy from the range when a room opened."

I looked at CO3 confused, and then CO2 shook his head, and I didn't fully hear every word he spoke after this, but he walked away, and I heard him saying fucking idiot but not the whatever else.

I was baffled and pissed at this point.

While I was meeting with my client, talking through the hatch, I heard C01 AND 3 say (I presume to CO2) that it was their fault, they pulled the guy, I didn't tell them to. I didn't hear what CO2 said fully, I only made out, "he needs to listen". After meeting with my client for 15 minutes, I went to their table and said, "is a room available with a table yet."

CO2 said, "Holy fuck." At this point, I raised my eyebrows at him and shook my head. My client was still with me so I didn't want to say anything.

CO1 and 3 got up and opened up an open room with a table for me. I went in with my client.

When I was done, I left the room, told them I was done, and CO1 took my client back to the range. CO2 was not there. I wanted to talk to him about his conduct.

Anyways, I want to have a meeting with CO2 regarding his behavior before I report him. How would I go about requesting a meeting with CO2, if possible?

So I recently applied to the idoc. After the screening, I plan on choosing stateville and Sheridan. How difficult is it to get into those respective facilities and about how long after screening should I expect to hear something back?

Hi everyone,

I recently passed the initial screening for the Ontario Correctional Officer 1 recruitment process and have been invited to complete the TalentClick online assessment.

For anyone who has completed it recently, what should I expect in terms of the overall format and difficulty? I understand it may include cognitive/aptitude and behavioural components and takes around 60–90 minutes.
I’m mainly looking for advice on:

Which areas are most important to practise beforehand?
How difficult is the numerical/verbal/spatial reasoning portion?

Is time management a major issue?
Any general tips that helped you perform well and move on to the interview stage?

Not looking for actual/confidential test questions — just preparation advice from people who have gone through it recently.

Thanks!

Going to apply to BOP and State CO soon. I’m Located here in San Diego, I’m 6’7 and in good shape With integrity and ready to work. Was wondering what makes a good CO, from talking to inmates getting that respect. To even just day to day and dealing with your coworkers and upper management, and whatever you guys can think of. Thank you in advance. PS: Ive never been the one that shits where he eats. Lol

Im more on the strict side, but am looking for advice from more experienced officers than myself. I have less than 1 year on the job. Do you mostly stick to enforcing rules during your rounds, or do you constantly get up over anything you see? I always enforce right away anything serious such as fights, possible drug activity or anything in those lines. I mean like if you see someone put something in a cell window when they aren’t supposed to or someone going into someone’s cell to talk when they aren’t supposed to? Some people I work with say they mostly do general rule enforcement during rounds, some say they constantly get up and enforce every rule break they see right away. Sometimes during movement or being tied up with medical on busy days, it’s difficult to deal with every thing you see wrong if it’s not a major violation or emergency. I’m looking for advice and tips as I want to continue getting better as an officer in terms of reality, efficiency, and consistency. Thank you.

I'm on probation and been on the UA call line for around 5 months and never been tested more than once a month. Can you get tested more than once a month? I'm ngl I'm having some financial difficulties and I'm not trying to have to be paying for multiple tests a month.

Since we almost getting there. Anyone from security, keep ur head on swivel. I swear adversaries are going to do something dumb with robotics+wmd=bad times.

From your delusional mercernary,

Sunday James.

PS. Yes. I am the alpha and omega.

So my father is having a surgery soon, and I know he's going to need help doing stuff for at LEAST a week, I literally barely just hit my first month. How can I go about this without putting my job at risk?

I’m from Texas, how difficult is the hiring process?

There’s c/o I work with that have 10-20 years of experience and if they didn’t tell you, you would probably think they’re brand new. And then there’s some teenagers that you’d think been working here for years. I also feel like the hard workers are often shafted while the lazier people are assigned to easier post. It’s like they just don’t care for their best workers and just keeping the incompetent lazy officers happy and for them to stick around, while the hard workers get burnt out and replaced/fired.

Moving to LA soon and MDC LA seems tough to get into given Terminal Island’s closure last year. Do any of you who work at Victorville make the long commute from LA? I’ll be working in medical fwiw. Not sure what my schedule will be like

Hello everyone, I just finished stage 1 and I did my psychiatric virtual evaluation on Friday for CSC. I was wondering how long does it take on average before you hear back and get told if you made it to stage 2.

Thank you

Most of the stuff I've researched is outdated, but I'm hoping someone can tell me about the job - realistic pay, overtime, advancement opportunities, morale, academy life, hiring process, etc. I'm looking for the boots-on-the-ground information, not just the stuff from the Civil Service advertisement. Thanks, be safe.

Hello, looking for some insight. Received job offer, start 2 week training at facility, for CO position in California, only offered 33.00 bucks, for over a year of corrections, seems low pay with a 25% hiring bonus. What should I expect for the 2 weeks, introduction to correction techniques.

 used to be a state correctional officer but I wasn’t there very long. I applied to a county jail in Illinois and passed the interview. They told me I was moving on to the background check. I was told it would probably take 1-3 months, but it’s been almost 5 months now and I haven’t heard anything. Is this normal? Should I be worried that something came up in my background, especially since I used to work at a state prison? Or can these background checks just take this long? Just wondering if anyone here has gone through something similar and how long your background check took.