What is a Juvenile Detention Officer?
As we all know, juveniles also commit crimes. But society must be
careful how it handles these offenders. It cannot just lump them
together with adult offenders. This is why society needs separate prison
systems and handlers for juveniles when they run afoul of the law.
When juvenile offenders go to jail or prison, they need juvenile detention officers to monitor them. These people must be able to handle youth offenders and there we say enjoy working with juveniles. People who fancy this job will have the following duties and responsibilities:
1. Maintain a prison that’s safe and conducive to juveniles
2. Observe and supervise juvenile activities in prison
3. Process juvenile admissions at the juvenile prisoner processing center
4. Transport juvenile prison inmates to court, medical, social, and judicial facilities
5. Play positive role model to juvenile prisoners
6. Treat juvenile prison inmates with respect and dignity
7. Monitor juvenile inmates and their visitors to make sure nothing inappropriate happens
8. Monitor and analyze juvenile justice information system
9. Maintain and update juvenile inmate records and logs
10. Etc.
A juvenile detention officer should maintain high moral character. Juveniles who have committed crime can still be rehabilitated to become productive members of society. It is important to have people of high morale character to set good examples for them.
How to Become a Juvenile Detention Officer:
The requirement to become a juvenile detention officer varies a little
bit from one prison system to another. The most common ones are:
a. You Must be 18 years of age
b. You Must be a US Citizen
c. You Must have High School Diploma or GED
d. You Must Pass a Background Check
Add to the above is that you must go through juvenile detention officers training. This training will last anywhere from 3 weeks to 10 weeks, depending on the prison system.
Additional requirements we have found from some prison systems are that you must have at least 2 years of previous work experience. This experience can be substituted with 2 years of college education. This is a one to one trade off.
Some juvenile detention systems call for people with the ability to know appropriate discipline when juveniles exhibit wrong behavior. It is believed the right discipline can have a positive impact on the juvenile while the wrong one will lead to the opposite. It is important to keep this in mind when you go for this job.
Juvenile Detention Officer Salary:
Juvenile detention officer’s average pay is about $29,000 per year to
start, from our search on Indeed.com. Your pay will continue to increase
as you gain more experience. We have seen salary as high as $38000 per
year.
Juvenile Detention Officer School:
A certificate in correction will give an advantage over your
competition. You can get this certificate online through Kaplan
University.
Request for their free no obligation information through this link.
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