Correctional Nursing Salary

Specialties Correctional

Published

Hey Everyone,

Does anybody know the average salary for a corrections nurse and/or how it compares to hospital pay. Also, do you usually need a certain amount of RN experience? I've been an RN for about 5 months now and working in a hospital setting and I absolutley hate it.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!!!

Hmmm. Corrections is like Clinic nursing, or ICU, or peds, or OB-GYN. If you like it, the pay is different in different situations. If the pay is the key, go work for a lawyer.

You can get $10/hr in corrections or maybe $40/hr. Maybe an attorney wil pay you more. I worked as a nurse for California in the 80's for $65k/yr. Gave it up to go to med school. Not much more pay and huge student loans. So....I could have retired next year...

If you love what you are doing, don't give it up. If you hate what you are doing, give it up at all cost!

Corrections is great for me. I am safe, there is not a lot of physical labor. My patients appreciate me, or they sue me, and I find the lawsuits interesting! I heartily recommend Corrections Larry

Specializes in ER, Corrections, LTC, ICU, Case Mgt.

I left staff nursing in Major ER/trauma center to go to corrections.

I have been here ~9mo, and make ~50K annually. I have 15 yrs of experience, and a BSN.

The pay is ~2K less base pay than hospital, but good differentials and vacation time.

Also the pace is much slower. (I am at work now)

But RN's(at least here) are treated the same as LPN's and Medical assistance with only a few exceptions.

Pretty mindless work for the pay.

Specializes in ER, ICU, Corrections.

There are many times that you feel a little unnerved working in corrections, I mean we work with people that have nothing to lose and would as much kill you as look at you, but I have been in this business for 16 years and I have been treated better by inmates than clients in the hospital. I think people in the hospital feel that they are in a high class motel and they don't care how many patients that you have but they are the most important.

I don't know how many times inmates have thanked me for the care that they have been given and they appreciate what we do for them. I love my job and would not go back to hospital nursing ever..this is where I am going to finish my career at and I hope that I don't hit burnout before that day happens.

Specializes in Knuckle Dragging Nurse aka MTA.
Crawsu said:
I don't know how long you've been in corrections, but I'm going on 10 years and I have been spat on once, by a psych patient. I was assaulted more than once in hospital nursing and feel much safer working in correctional nursing.

For the most part, the inmates treat the nurses with respect as thay know we are there to get them health care if that is what they need. I have even had other inmates reprimand a fellow inmate who is disrespectful to the nurse. And I and other nurses on my unit have been thanked by inmates who were helped by virtue of being incarcerated and getting medical care they would not have gotten on the outside.

Granted, I work in a jail setting, so our inmates are usually not long termers with nothing to lose. I suppose that dealing with lifers might be a bit more dangerous.

Still, I have never felt threatened in this setting, and there were times in the hospital that I didn't feel as safe as I do in the correctional environment.

I work at a level 4 maximum security prison. Lifers fill the place and they have nothing to lose, which is why they committ the actions i listed above (spitting, throwing feces and urine, biting, and attacking the nurses and correctional officers). While i do prefer corrections over the hospital setting and LTC, the downside to correctional nursing is it makes people harder and colder. Its the way you have to be working around killers and rapists.

I work in Tennessee and the starting salary for LPNs is 16-17/hr. Much better than hospitals.

Hi. I am a new R.N., just got my results this morning! YAY! Anyways, I am in California and will be working at a Corrections Cener here. They just got an 18% pay raise this year. They start off at about $6650.00 a month, plus great benefits and retirement! Ya really can't beat it. They also have bonuses! ;-). Will keep you posted on how I like it. Lori R.N. (Oh that feels good! R.N.!)

Gabbiegal31 said:
Hi. I am a new R.N., just got my results this morning! YAY! Anyways, I am in California and will be working at a Corrections Cener here. They just got an 18% pay raise this year. They start off at about $6650.00 a month, plus great benefits and retirement! Ya really can't beat it. They also have bonuses! ;-). Will keep you posted on how I like it. Lori R.N. (Oh that feels good! R.N.!)

Congratulations on becoming an RN!

Thank you so much! I am on cloud 9, because like eveyone else who takes it, the waiting was sooo hard. It feels good to have all the hard work pay off! Lori ;-)

12hrs_at_a_time said:
I work in Tennessee and the starting salary for LPNs is 16-17/hr. Much better than hospitals.

Same here in Idaho. State workers hadn't had a raise in over 3 years and the Governor finally pushed through a 3% merit based raise.

I'm making close to $17.00 an hour in a very rural setting and it's paying about $3-$4 an hour more than our local hospital.

I'm very content here. ?

RN making $24 an hour with CMS (prn). Was making $31.50/hr on med/surg unit.

military spouse said:
RN making $24 an hour with CMS (prn). Was making $31.50/hr on med/surg unit.

CMS pays a lot less than most hospitals pay. They also cut benefits left and right. We went from 11 paid holidays per year, to 6. :uhoh3: Mind you, the staff in St. Louis did not have any benefit cuts.

CMS and PHS lost a lot of their contracts in Tennessee. PHS was replaced by CCS and CMS was replaced by another company, but I don't know who.

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